Monsters in Midgar: Result
Felicia had been fighting in the Sector 7 Slums until the Abyss Worms and Death Claws were dead, largely ignoring every other monster there—her people would take care of the small fries. In the grand scheme of things, it hadn't taken her all that long to defeat them, but as she made her way into Sector 6 (just in time to see two Death Claws and a Funny Face kill a SOLDIER), she realized that what they had been dealing with elsewhere was nothing compared to there. For every one monster she'd seen in Sector 7, Sector 6 and Wall Market had four times that.
She could only stare in something like horror for a few moments, then quickly sent out an alert to all her people—other than the Abyss Worm and Death Claw hunters, like Shears—to head for Sector 6. The Abyss Worm and Death Claw hunters would have to finish what they were doing in their current Sector, then head that way. In addition, there was no possible way she'd be able to get through Sector 6 to Sector 5 to check on Elmyra. There was no other option but to jump into the mess and start salvaging what was left in that area, though she didn't think too much outside Corneo's would still be in half-way decent shape.
As such, she began wading her way through monster wave after monster wave, some of her people quickly flanking her as she did. While the battle wasn't generally 'hard' for her, it was most definitely time-consuming, the numbers overwhelming with every reviving addition to it.
All of a sudden, the power went out and everyone realized the monsters were dying in one kill now, which admittedly took several minutes with the last few double revivers, and she gave a faint smile as she called out, "The Turks figured it out! Let's get this cleaned up!"
Everyone gave a sudden cheer and pushed forward into the Wall Market area, pulling civilian survivors out of the mess as they went. Machines of various strange configurations and bearing the Shin-Ra logo began dropping into the mess, many of them in the basic form of some sort of monster and generally quite mobile. They only attacked the monsters or a human who directly attacked them, so ended up becoming reasonable battle partners.
Sometime while they were fighting, General Sephiroth descended on them from above, slaughtering many of the monsters on the ground very quickly before turning his attention to the Evil Eyes and Evilgoyles in the air above them. After he'd defeated many of those, he flew away in the direction of Sectors 5 and 4. Everyone could only stare in surprise at the single, black wing sprouting from his right shoulder blade.
"Well..." Felicia began, feeling like she should scratch her head.
Rather than that, she kept fighting several more of the monsters, mostly Abyss Worms and Death Claws again, then froze as she caught sight of something on the ground. Moving over to it, she reached down and picked up a single, white-yellow flower like one kind Aeris grew only at her home, not at the Church.
"...Elmyra...?" she blinked at the flower, then looked up and around. While there was blood on the ground, most of the bodies had already reverted to pyreflies, so she couldn't immediately see any signs of the woman.
Distracted as she was, she didn't realize she was being attacked by an Abyss Worm until it collapsed behind her with Reno on its back. His expression was strange, but—he was a Turk, so she called, "Have you seen any traces of a woman with dark brown hair and dark eyes, usually wearing a green dress, Reno?"
He gave a slow blink, then frowned slightly like he was puzzled. Finally, he pointed in the direction of some of Wall Market's craft and tailoring supply shops and said, "Try over there. Dunno if it'll help ya, though. An' pay attention to your surroundings, yo!" he added with a final glare, then jumped from his perch to strike down one of the very last Evil Eyes in the area (where had all the rest disappeared to?) and vanished into the thick of battle, followed by a prancing, one-horned horse she assumed was Unicorn.
Making her way in the direction of the indicated shops, Felicia found just as many monsters there as there had been elsewhere, so had to focus on killing them—until she found a splatter surrounded by dirty bits of torn, green cloth. Not far from them, she saw a glint of metal, and quickly retrieved the item—and could only stare in stunned horror at Elmyra's wedding ring, which she had never removed, even after getting the notice of her husband's death.
Aeris' (adoptive) mother was dead. How would Aeris feel to hear that?
She didn't have time to think on it because the monsters were still coming, so she had to return to the battle right then. Later, who knew, but when she saw Vant there and Sephiroth back after whatever he'd left to do, along with other SOLDIERs, she knew she had to keep fighting. Shears had joined them, and there were several 'criminals' in the mix, some of those even having apparently abandoned Corneo to protect civilians. The last was a positive sign, and when the immediate disaster was over, she would be asking them to join Gaia's Refuge instead.
When the monsters were finally defeated and the cheering started, she was interrupted by a message on her PHS from SOLDIER Director Lazard Deusericus. It surprised her momentarily, but then she saw in the note that Tseng had told him to get in touch with her to make sure the Slums were clear of monsters. In other words, he needed her and her people to organize the final sweep before the power got turned back on, so she began organizing the sweep. It was mildly surprising to be able to add the SOLDIERs and Turks present there to the list of sweepers, but as soon as she had Sephiroth's agreement to coordinate, all the others accepted as well.
Because of the General's support, the sweep was quickly organized and taken care of, and she got the final reports in sooner than she'd expected. Of course, Sephiroth's new-found ability for flight helped greatly in that, but once she had the last one, she put through a call to Lazard just long enough to say, "Lower Plate Sectors One through Eight clear."
She then paused and pulled it out again to send a note to Tseng: I know you probably don't want to hear this, let alone this way, but Elmyra Gainsborough is dead, and I'll be stopping by in a day or two to give you something and discuss this further.
Note sent, she turned her attention to maintaining order and trying to find places for the civilians. Finally, after almost five hours without power anywhere in the city, it came back on.
FoW
The battle outside the Shinra building had finally wound down, and Tseng sat down on the steps as he took out his PHS. Admittedly, after what he and Eden had done on the President's Office balcony during the Wutain Invasion, this hadn't drained him so much. It hadn't been so intensive or rapid, and because of Chaos' three-minute support, it had actually not taken as long. There had been pauses to rest, even if those pauses were only a minute or two at a time, and—there had been more than two people fighting them all.
However, their work wasn't done yet.
He dialed Lazard's number, and the man picked up with the words, "Did you know your command center door doesn't open without power?"
The Wutain gave an amused (and short-lived) snort and said, "It does, you'd just have to be familiar enough with the room to find a flashlight and activate the manual override. In the meantime, since our phones still work, I need you to coordinate a sweep for monsters. In the building, you're going to have to get in touch with your own people, Weapons, and the Academy kids. We have to be sure they're all dead before we turn the power back on."
"And besides the mercenaries and SOLDIERs in the Slums—there aren't very many to coordinate that with—do you have any ideas of who I could ask?"
"Chief Felicia Pereld, the leader of Gaia's Refuge. They have a significant presence there, so would be your better bet. They also are best equipped to coordinate with everyone else you have down there right now. I'll forward you her number."
Lazard gave a small sigh and said, "I'll get in touch with her, first, then get started on arranging the sweep on the Upper Plate. Use the time to rest."
"I had planned to," Tseng agreed. "Thanks."
They both hung up, then the Wutain Turk typed Felicia's PHS number. Around him, everyone else began finding places to sit as well, the Turks gathered around him and the SOLDIERs gathered near Zack, who settled near them. The students began heading back inside the building, finding places in there to sit or going back to the Academy floors to find their friends. Most of the civilians, criminals, and mercenaries who had helped them sat or laid down where they were, obviously just as exhausted as the rest.
At that moment, Tseng remembered a thought from earlier and reached over to rest a hand on Kariya's shoulder. It shocked him to feel a flinch at the touch. "Kariya, where's Maur?" he asked quietly. Kariya looked up at him with a pained gaze and gave his head a shake before dropping his head into his hands, elbows braced on his knees.
A moment later, all the other Turks drew in sharp breaths as they realized what the reaction meant—Maur was dead.
Rubbing his eyes to ward off tears, Tseng said quietly, "We will have to talk about that later, Kariya. I have more bad news—apparently Shelke is missing and Shalua lost an arm in the attack." The man flinched, then looked up at him in horror. "As soon as we're able, we'll have to see what can be done for them." He wasn't quite able to keep the pain out of his voice. "We have to finish cleaning up the monsters, first, though." Kariya looked like he would argue, then just gave a nod and dropped his head back into his hands. "...Maybe I shouldn't have told you now..."
"I'd have hated to come across that on my own later," the older man replied tiredly, pain almost seeping off him, for lack of a better way to explain the man's reaction.
Soon after, Lazard began coordinating the sweep of the city, and Tseng found he was impressed by the man's memory of intra-Sector area lines, as he knew the man was sitting in a completely black room with no available reference material. It didn't take long to allocate people to searches, but it took significantly longer to actually complete the searches. Finally, after nearly five hours, he was able to call Reeve to have him give the okay to turn all the Reactors back on, as well as to have him call Sora and see if he could instruct her on how to re-activate Reactor 0.
It wasn't long after that when a text message from Felicia came in, and when he read it—he felt himself falling sideways against the nearest wall in shock. Jessie and Maur definitely dead, Shalua missing an arm, Shelke just missing, and now Elmyra definitely dead? Who else were they going to get such news about?
A sudden memory of a—slimy thing—hitting the pavement not that long before Vant came down on them made him draw his PHS and find the man's number to call him—only to remember his phone wasn't connecting. The blue illusion stone prompted him to call Lunaria instead, so he did.
She answered with, "How are things looking out there, since our power's not back on yet?"
"I've gotten in touch with Reeve to see about the power issue. I want to hope against hope that you can give me some good news. Do you have any idea where Shelke Rui is?" he asked, hoping the blue stone was right.
"She's here—once she woke up, she's been acting as our guard, though I'm not sure we need one now," Lunaria replied. "Do you want to talk with her?"
"No—just...if she's safe, at the first available opportunity, she'll need to go find her sister and her father. And Doctor Valentine...it's especially important that she see her sister, because Shalua lost an arm in the attack."
The woman drew in a sharp breath and said, "I'd help if we had any supplies to help with at the moment. Are you heading back any time soon?"
"No. We're busy running patrols and trying to pull people out of the rubble, but—I just had to hope Hojo hadn't made off with her. Thank you."
"Good luck, then."
He hung up and went back to his assigned task as he sent a text message to Kariya that Shelke was safe with the President and Doctor Valentine.
Like when all the power went out, the Reactors which were restored first were the eight city Reactors, which caused a flurry of activity as everything began working again. The first out were the emergency personnel.
In the meantime, the second problem they had in the city was that criminals—ones who hadn't participated in clearing the monsters—were robbing various homes and stores, and sometimes harming or killing people. It had happened in the Slums, too, though not so severely as there was far less of value there. They had noticed and stopped as much of that as they could during the sweep, but the problem persisted even after the power came back on, so it ended up taking over five more hours before things settled down again.
Of course, that just drained everyone even more, and even Zack was tired by then—and they were all starving, having all missed lunch and supper, and the time now approaching midnight.
It was also during the time since the power came back on when they found out most of the Infantry commanders had either hightailed it out of the city or gone into hiding in it, leaving only low-ranking privates and cadets for the most part. Some of those had fled (in the cadets' case, that was actually understandable because they had next to no training), leaving only a few officers and some Privates who had joined because of a desire to protect people. It hadn't been much, but at least some of them had made an effort, and their help had been appreciated.
At least the power in Shinra Headquarters had come back on, though it ended up taking about half an hour after they had given the okay, and their hospital facilities were able to be put into functional use sooner than many of the ones in the city. It also meant the kitchen and food facilities were functional by late evening, and the cafeteria made an extra-large meal which they started serving when everyone fighting started returning. Danger passed, nearly everyone employed by Shinra ate, then went to sleep, all fully clothed and by merely falling into their beds, ignoring any holes in their floors and ceilings for the time being.
Most of them slept late, but Tseng still managed to get to the office by nine in the morning, tired or not. In his case, though, that was because his blue illusion stone told him to get up and get down there. He found out why when he saw Reno standing at the main office window, the reflection in the glass showing a blank gaze...and his shoulders trembling.
"Reno?" he asked as he approached the other young man.
At first, there was no reaction, then the red haired Turk gave his head a shake. "I was right, yo. This ain't no game, an' I can't pretend it is. Even what I saw in Deepground didn't prepare me for seein'—" Reno paused, then sighed, closing his eyes. "Every time I close my eyes, I see that Death Claw tearin' him apart, Tseng."
"...Him?" the Wutain asked with a sinking feeling.
"Alvis."
For a moment, Tseng just felt—like he was about to fall over, like vertigo.
Then, he stepped forward and rested a hand on Reno's shoulder, making the younger of them shake his head and give his eyes a rub. Reno and Alvis had been like brothers, and of all the Turks, Reno had spent the most time with the other red haired teen. After all, they used the same weapon, but Reno had two years more experience than Alvis, so he had been the one to train him—and not just in EMR use, but many other Turk skills as well. How much it would have hurt Reno to see him die would easily have been as bad or worse than Kariya seeing Maur's death.
"It's not shameful to cry over losing someone you cared about, Reno," he said softly, wrapping an arm around the younger Turk's shoulders. Reno turned to press his face into the Wutain's shoulder, quietly sobbing after having held it in for as long as he had. Tseng also let tears fall, because both Alvis and Maur had been people he had cared about too, and he had Jessie's and Elmyra's deaths to mourn as well; he needed to release some of that feeling.
It took them both almost an hour to stop crying, and the office was still empty, so Tseng released a small sigh and said, "You should try to sleep, Reno. It might not be easy right now, but you'll need the rest. We'll all need the rest."
"Heh," Reno snorted faintly, a bit of amusement laced into his voice. "Must be the first time you've told me ta sleep in the middle of the day, Bossman."
"We're not going to get much done today besides more clean-up, so you may as well. It looks like you were up all night."
The younger Turk paused, then sighed and pushed back from the Wutain. "Yeah. Thanks, yo." He wandered somewhat absently from the office—as President Shinra and Kariya walked into the room.
Tseng quickly wiped his face with one hand and put on a stony mask as he asked, "What can I do for you, President Shinra?"
"We need a full report on the incident, then I need to get in touch with Rufus to let him know what to expect when he and his escorts return," the blond man stated. "We have several holes to fill now as well, in many departments, and I need some of your assessments of individuals who may be able to fill the roles. How soon do you think you can get everything to me?"
Pausing to think about what the President was asking for (wasn't the man just cold towards all the deaths?), Tseng assessed how quickly he could possibly find and organize everything the man wanted. Finally, he said, "Between Chief Pereld, Director Lazard, and myself, we should be able to have a functional basic report ready by the end of the day. A more detailed report will take at least three days. In the meantime, I should also have assessments of people to you by the end of the day if you send me lists of individuals you have in mind and a list of positions you have no one in mind for."
"Good enough. By your usual quality of a 'functional report' that should be enough for me to allocate funds and support in required amounts. Oh, I've already chosen Director Lazard Deusericus and Doctor Page Blythe as Heidegger's and Hojo's replacements, so you don't have to worry about them." Shinra then huffed and added irritably, "That fool Hojo, slaughtering nearly the whole department! Blythe will have just as much work to do finding enough new assistants to keep the current department work from falling apart." He looked back up at Tseng and gave a nod. "I'll tell you right now, your priorities are finding someone to take the SOLDIER Director's place and Palmer's place, and I have no ideas about either of those. I'll be waiting for your reports and assessments, and I'll forward you a further list of what I need filled within the hour."
As soon as the man was gone, Kariya—whose gaze was pained—commented, "That guy's a right piece of work. It's not a wonder Eden assessed him the way he did."
"I can't deny that," Tseng sighed. "Maybe this isn't the best time with all the work I now have to do, but...How did Maur die?"
"...The Behemoth began transforming into a King Behemoth about the same time the power in the city went out. Maur didn't realize that while he was pinned by its paw, so he used a Quake Fist on it—and got hit with Flare at point-blank range. There's not a fuck of a lot that can block a counter, and that close...he was ash. Just...blackened ash," Kariya explained, reaching up to rub his eyes tiredly, but Tseng knew he was also wiping away tears. "Add to that Shalua's arm...I can only be thankful my girls are both still alive and here with me."
"That's very true, after I found out someone I knew in the Slums is dead, too." With a small sigh, Tseng added softly, "That Behemoth must have been pretty old to have transformed...We could never have known that would happen. And with Alvis gone, too..." He was silent for a moment before his shoulders slumped a bit and he asked, "Would it be too much to ask you for your help right now? I sent Reno away because he didn't sleep last night after seeing Alvis die...If you're not ready, either, you can go. I could see that you'd much rather be with Shalua and Shelke right now."
The older man looked up at him, but didn't say anything, so the Wutain turned to go to his office. It was logical to the think the man would want to mourn and be with his daughters, at least for one day, so he felt he would be working alone until the others started getting in after waking. And their help would be iffy as well after the two good Turks they'd just lost. He sat at his office desk tiredly and gave his eyes a rub before turning towards the shelves for the forms he would need—only to find Kariya quietly handing them to him.
"I'm not the only one who lost someone, Tseng," Kariya said quietly as the Wutain blinked at him in clear surprise. "You did, too. We all did. Sure, we could all take the easy way out and just not work, but all that would do—is destroy you. I've lost people before, people I cared about. People die, Tseng. It's when we lose the people we care about that we need to support one another the most. The President forcing you to work on such tight deadlines when you need to mourn—I can't let you carry that burden alone. I think once Reno's rested, he'll be back to help you, too. I think all the Turks will. Even with our own pain."
Slowly, Tseng reached up to take the papers, then gave a small, sad smile and said, "Thank you, Kariya. I think one of the first things I need you to find out is what happened to Vant while he was with the President and Hojo—everything that happened there is a blank to me."
"I can answer some of that," a woman's voice commented—only to be punctuated by a baby's soft coo. Both looked up to see Lunaria in the doorway with a four-month-old baby in a cute, green onesie in her arms.
Tseng blinked as Kariya cocked his head to the side and asked, "So...you and Vant already managed to make another kid, Doctor? Pretty quick, ain't it?"
The woman gave a derisive snort and said, "Well, he is genetically mine and Vant's anyway, but no. Hojo cloned him from Sephiroth's genes, and for some reason, the Lifestream decided to fix the damage Hojo had done to him. (1) Incidentally, that reduced him to the age he should be based on when he was created—that is, four months. We already found as many of Hojo's records as we could on the experiments he released into Midgar, including 'Subject Q's'. However, we can't technically claim him without alerting the President—and everyone else in Shinra—to the fact that we aren't the 'identities' you gave us. Sephiroth, being his genetic origins, may be able to sway who gets him in the end, but I think for now, he'll have to stay in the labs. At least until it's safe for us to take him—and I don't think Sephiroth, Vant, or Anthony will say no to being his family once the coast is clear."
"So what can you tell us about the situation and what Hojo did?" Tseng asked.
The black haired woman moved over to sit across from the Wutain, settling the baby in her lap as she said, "Well, let's just start with Hojo throwing a tantrum when the power began going out." She explained what had taken place in the President's office, right up to Shelke's arrival, Sephiroth sprouting a black wing, and Chaos defeating Jenova. After that, she went on with what they had found in his notes. "Hojo had basically pumped all of his remaining raw Jenova cells into his body before they could be used to make more SOLDIER infusions since all the pre-made infusions had been taken from him. He then mostly used the Jenova cells from his body to enhance the monsters, and to experiment with a new cloning effect."
"A new cloning effect?" the two Turks blinked.
"Exactly," she agreed. "It causes growth from inception to adulthood in about seven hours. At least, physically it does. In a monster, that doesn't mean anything beyond them being more irritable, but for a human or humanoid, like this little one or the Makonoids, it affects their sanity and mental state because they 'grew up' too fast and their minds couldn't keep up with it. They also still have the genetic damage caused by cloning which causes the body to age and die faster. So basically, Hojo fertilized a bunch of monster eggs, cloned them with this method, and put the result in the crates he left around the city, where they laid dormant until the process completed—only his original experimental subjects, like the two Behemoths, had actually been tranquilized."
"Did he happen to say why he killed everyone on those floors, why he endangered the city this way?" Tseng asked.
"He was angry because the people he felt he owned weren't cooperating with him, and he didn't want anyone to be able to stop them—Jenova's influence was behind that, because monsters like those could have easily razed the world if we hadn't had clever Vant to get the data on their weakness. Hojo didn't care about the world's fate, though, that much is obvious. Jenova was also directing so many monster attacks leading up to this incident, specifically because she wanted us tired and unable to keep fighting them. She'd have gotten her wish with this, and Hojo wanted to know if his theories were right, and if he got to find out the truth behind Chaos and Omega Theory in the process, he was fine with that, too," Lunaria explained.
"Well, that's quite an extreme reaction to not getting a few test subjects," Kariya commented as Tseng pinched the bridge of his nose tiredly.
"Hojo has never played well with others," Lunaria replied, sounding amused.
"Well, that answered most of what I need for the preliminary reports," the Wutain sighed. "Did he happen to leave a list of their locations and numbers?"
"He did. I can forward it to you. How much will you put in your report?" the woman asked.
"If what you said is true, Shinra saw Vant become Chaos, so likely knows Vant is Vincent Valentine," Tseng said. "I'll need to ask him. We may not be able to hide Shelke's—and Shalua and Genesis'—status as a Cetra, either, after that. With the known ties between you and Vant, the President may demand to know exactly who you are, and I don't think that could be hidden with Blythe and Kedran's knowledge of both yours and the baby's—Sephiroth's—genetics. If that would actually be detrimental to any of us, I don't know, but Shelke and Genesis are still the ones in the most danger of being harmed. We'll have to work out the details once President Shinra indicates to me how much he knows. In the meantime, thank you for your help, and I really do have a lot of other work to do for the end of the day."
With a nod, Lunaria rose. "I won't keep you, then. Let me know what to expect as you find out what you need to know."
"I will, thanks," the Wutain agreed absently as he began working on the paperwork in front of him. She left with the baby as he looked back up at Kariya. "With that answered—mostly—could I ask you instead to search Heidegger's home and office for anything which may explain his sudden insanity yesterday?"
"Will do, then. Call me if you need anything," the older man agreed, and turned to go.
"And Kariya," Tseng added, making the man pause. "Find time to visit your daughters. Hopefully today."
"...I will," Kariya agreed with a faint smile, then left.
It was bound to be a long few days.
Notes:
(1) Logically, Qliphoth could have become the 'Nightmare' Sephiroth if he wasn't stopped, because while Sephiroth had rejected Jenova, Qliphoth hadn't. This incident would have been enough to push the clone over the edge, also because he was grown far to rapidly for him to have his full mental capacities—he only barely had a brain advanced enough to grasp language and copy the things he was being shown, not to think independently. For Minerva to stop that outcome and finally break the ties Jenova had to the world, she needed to fix Qliphoth, or the results later would have been easily as bad as anything Sephiroth did in the original timeline.
