THIRTY

The elevator opened onto a short hall with just a few doors. I crept quietly forward, Lena at my side while Barret and Red followed behind us. There was no one there, and I didn't like it. Shinra might've thought their defenses upstairs would've been enough, but I wasn't so sure. As I headed down the hall toward the door ahead of us, I kept my eyes alert and my fists up. The others were wary, too.

When we entered the next room, we just stopped and stared at the terrible sight around us for a moment. The place was huge, larger than the small bunker we'd come in from, with rows of thick glass cylinders that went from floor to ceiling. Inside them were all kinds of monsters, mostly just eaters but also grashtrikes, wererats, drakes, and terpsicolts, among others. They were all in different stages of development, with a computer console in front of each cylinder. And stacks of what looked like specimen containers stood along the walls.

"Goddamn…" Barret swore.

I sighed. "You're not kidding. Even with what Cloud said about the Nibel reactor, I didn't wanna believe it."

He grimaced. "I know, Tifa. I felt the same way."

"Think we can access one of those computers?" I asked.

"Yeah," Lena offered. "Jessie's taught me a few tricks over the years. I can get in and see what Shinra's up to."

Barret nodded. "Find out what ya can, Lena."

After holstering her gun, she gave us a thumbs up, then hurried to the nearest console and started entering commands. Barret, Red, and I waited patiently nearby, keeping a close watch on our surroundings as Lena worked. Nobody else was there, and aside from the steady hum of whatever machinery operated all this, there was only the sound of our breathing and Lena tapping keys on the computer.

"Those assholes!" Lena swore.

I blinked. "What is it?"

She turned the monitor so we could see the readouts. "Found what I was looking for, Tifa. Had to dig through a bunch of log entries about the monsters and how they're bred and grown—it's mostly automated, probably to help keep the whole operation secret and give Shinra some deniability if anything ever did come out."

"Makes sense," I said. "That's probably why we haven't seen anyone else down here yet. It's all run by machines."

Lena went on. "Right. The monsters are transported underground through hidden tunnels when they've matured and are released on the surface. Mostly in the less inhabited parts of Sectors 5, 6, and 7 like the outskirts and the collapsed expressway."

"Why just there?" I asked. "What about the other sectors?"

"A few were sent to the rest of the slums, but most were brought to where we are," she explained. "It was all part of the plan. Like supplying the Vice gang so they could cause havoc. But besides keeping us scared and divided, the attacks had another purpose."

Barret frowned. "Which was?"

Lena's eyes narrowed. "They were setting up a kill zone. In the past few months as the attacks from the monsters and Vice escalated, more and more people either fled to Sector 7 or stayed there, scared to leave because of what was going on. There were monsters in the outskirts, of course, but not as many people got attacked there as in Sectors 5 and 6. And the Vice gang never went that far."

"Sector 7 was purposely left alone?" I realized.

"That's right," she said. "Shinra's been herding people over there for months this way, so that when they finally dropped the plate, they'd kill as many as possible. It would've demonized us in the eyes of the people and demoralized anyone who supported us."

Barret scowled. "Shit! Then that would hafta mean…"

"Shinra was gonna drop the plate all along," I finished, horrified at what we'd just found out. "Whether we did anything or not. They used us as a convenient excuse to pull it off."

"An' we walked right into it," Barret muttered.

I looked at Lena. "The data you found, can you save it? We've gotta tell Cloud, Jessie, and the others about this."

She took a small thumb drive out of her pocket and plugged it into the computer console. "Already on it! Figured we might find some info worth taking, so I brought this with me."

Then she got to work, copying the files holding all the information she'd just shown us. Lena saved as much as she could, her eyes fixed on the screen while the rest of us watched and waited. Aside from sharing the data with Cloud and the others, I wasn't sure yet what we could do with it, but having evidence of what Shinra had done and of how they'd planned the plate collapse could be useful. When she was finished, she took out the drive and put it back in her pocket.

"Good work, Lena," Barret clapped her her on the shoulder. "Now, how many grenades did ya bring?"

"Six," she answered.

He nodded. "Awright. Let's torch this place."

"If we can find the generator that powers this facility, we should be able to cause more damage," Red suggested. "Destroying it may cause a chain reaction which could blow out the entire complex, thus ensuring that no further monsters are set loose."

"Can we get out in time?" I wondered.

Red glanced at me. "If we move quickly enough."

Barret pumped his fist. "Then that's settled. We gonna show Shinra that Avalanche is still alive! Kinda like the idea of makin' my exit from Midgar with a bang, if ya know what I mean."

"Hell yeah!" Lena agreed. "I'm in!"

I was, too. "I'm all for stopping Shinra's operation here as well. The slums'll be a little safer with this place gone."

"Follow me!" Red told us.

We did, hurrying after him past the rows of glass cylinders. About two thirds of the way across the room, the floor sloped down as we left the specimen area behind. The lower level had a wide metal grating for the floor bordered by railings, and past them was another area further down, full of machinery. A ladder across from us led into it. Red didn't bother trying to climb down but instead jumped straight onto the floor below, landing skillfully on his paws.

After Barret, Lena, and I had climbed down the ladder, we hurried after Red, weaving our way through the area as our feet thudded on the metal floor. We found a short hall and followed it into another room, a larger chamber with what could only have been the power generator at the far end. A nest of pipes and wires went into it, sending energy into the rest of the underground complex.

"Paydirt!" Barret grinned. "Let's get to work!"

Lena went over to the generator and set five of her grenades on top of the hub where everything came together. A maintenance console sat just underneath it, with a bunch of dials and buttons, probably used for adjusting the power flow. Once Lena was finished, she took out the last grenade and put it with the rest, keeping it steady with one hand while taking hold of the pin with the other.

She looked at us. "Back up, everyone! Get ready to run!"

We did, moving away until we were standing by the entrance to the room, our eyes fixed on Lena. I held my breath as she took one herself and then yanked out the pin with one quick pull. Then she raced right toward us, her feet pounding madly across the floor. She never slowed down for a second, and as soon as she got close, the rest of us sprinted along with her down the hall and away from the generator room as fast as we could, our lungs burning with every step.

The rumbling started almost as soon as we made it back to the first room on this level, and thunder filled our ears as we raced through the large cluster of machinery toward the ladder. When I glanced over my shoulder for a moment, I saw a fiery orange glow lighting the hall we'd just left, and I pushed myself even faster.

Seconds later, we finally made it to the ladder. Red crouched, then sprang straight up, reaching the platform without a problem. Once he'd cleared it, the rest of us climbed up after him—Lena first, then me, and Barret last. The entire complex was starting to shake, and the rumbling was getting louder. We didn't have much time.

We were almost halfway across the platform, not far from where it began to slope upward toward the main area where the monsters were kept, when something huge and metal suddenly crashed down in front of us from the darkness of the high ceiling overhead. It was a machine, with eight legs, a scanner scope, and a long, barbed tail. The thing was like a giant metal scorpion, all black trimmed in gold as it fixed its twin arm cannons on us and we skidded to a halt.

"Shit!" Barret spat. "Not another of these goddamn bastards!"

I raised my fists. "You've fought one before?"

He nodded, whipping up his gun-arm. "Me an' Cloud torched this thing's little brother back in Reactor 1."

"So this one's an upgrade?" Lena blinked.

"Looks that way," Barret grimaced. "Not as much cover we can use this time, though. Stay sharp, guys. An' watch that tail—if it hits ya, it'll leave ya in a whole worlda pain!"

Red unsheathed his claws. "Understood."

Lena drew her gun. "Let's take this sucker out!"

"Copy that!" I agreed, launching myself at the scorpion.

The tunnel we'd found below Sector 7 led into what looked like an underground test site of some kind. Aerith, Biggs, Wedge, and I found ourselves in a large, multi-leveled chamber connected by metal ladders and walkways. Although there were lights here and there, it didn't look like this place had been used in a long time. But I stayed alert, my eyes checking the shadows as we moved.

We'd just headed down a few stairs and into a short hall in between two sections of the main chamber when we came to a transparent wall on our left and stopped when we realized someone was lying on the far side, facing away from us. Was that Tom? I'd only met him maybe once or twice, not enough to really know him. Not like Biggs and Wedge, at least. They'd known him and everyone else in town. And they both ran over to the wall, their eyes wide.

"Tom!" Biggs called. "Can you hear us?"

Wedge tapped on the thick, shatterproof glass. "You okay? Me and Biggs'll get you outta here, don't worry."

He didn't answer, and I didn't need to glance at Aerith to know she was worried about him. Tom was pretty hurt, bruised and bloodied all over, but fortunately still alive—I noticed his breathing from the slight movement of his chest. I didn't think he was conscious, though, and he looked as if he'd been attacked recently. His clothes were torn in places, like he'd been clawed at by something.

"How do you think he got over there?" Biggs asked.

I folded my arms in front of me. "Not sure. Probably got lost trying to find another way outta here. If he was already in bad shape from the fall, he wouldn't have been able to escape the same way we came in, not without help. Something found him, though."

Aerith nodded. "Sounds about right. Let's hope we don't meet it. In the meantime, if we can reach Tom, I'll do what I can for him, enough so we can move him and get outta here."

"Hold on, buddy," Wedge told him. "We'll be there soon."

Biggs clapped Wedge on the shoulder, then we moved on, hurrying down the corridor until it opened into another part of the main room. After going down a second set of stairs, we came to another area with a few abandoned cranes sitting here and there past the railings on either side. And along one wall was a row of tall cages that stretched from the floor all the way to the high ceiling. Most were empty, but faint growls came from a few of them, though it was too dark to see much besides a handful of muscled, humanoid shapes.

From there, we followed a wide hallway lined with high shelves on our right full of metal crates and emblazoned with the Shinra logo. We ran into a few wererats and an occasional bloodhound as we made our way through the test site but tore through them easily enough. I didn't think they'd been what had attacked Tom, at least not alone. He was an experienced member of the neighborhood watch, from what Jessie had told me, and he'd probably still been armed from the fight in the pillar. That meant something else was down here.

"So the rumors are true…" Wedge murmured.

I glanced at him. "What rumors?"

Biggs looked uneasily around us as we walked through the test site. "You never heard? Wymer and a few others always said there was some old abandoned Shinra complex under our feet, but nobody ever found anything until now. Just a few monsters here and there that supposedly escaped from the place. Didn't believe it myself, but I guess I don't have much of a choice anymore. Seems he was right."

We hurried on until we came to a pile of fallen rock and debris that blocked our way forward. It must've caved in after Tom had gone past, probably due to the plate coming down. We'd seen other piles of rubble here and there, but nothing that had really gotten in our way until now. And this wasn't gonna stop us, either.

I nodded to the others, and we stood back for a moment. Then we got to work, Aerith and I concentrating on our materia while Biggs and Wedge drew their guns and took aim. Between blasts of fire, lightning, and bullets, the barrier didn't last long, blowing apart as we kept hitting it again and again until we'd cleared a path.

Once the dust had settled, we got moving again, heading down the corridor and following it as it bent to the left. When it came to another set of stairs, we hurried up them and then through a pair of open metal doors into the room that we'd spotted Tom in earlier. It was large, with walkways and huge cargo containers just like the ones Aerith and I had moved on the collapsed expressway with those giant robot hands. Tom was nearby, hurt and lying on his side, and the glass wall we'd first seen him through was off to our right.

"Tom!" Wedge called, rushing over to him.

Biggs glanced at Aerith as she knelt next to Tom and gently pulled him onto his back. "Will he be alright?"

She smiled. "Yeah. He's hurt, but he'll make it."

While Biggs and Wedge sighed in relief, Aerith tended to Tom. She still had the Restore materia, so she used it to mend his wounds as best she could. He stirred a little but didn't wake up yet. Aerith understood and let him be, knowing as well as I did that it wouldn't help to rush it. So she let him rest while she worked.

"Can we move him?" I asked.

She nodded. "Better than staying here. Let's go, Cloud. I'll do more for him once we get outta here."

Biggs carefully picked Tom up, carrying him in his arms, and I led him and the others back the way we'd come. But we didn't very far. The metal doors abruptly slid shut, slamming down from the ceiling with a bang, and I suddenly heard something scuttling in the shadows around us. I motioned to Biggs, and he gently put Tom back down, setting him near the wall. Then, after drawing his gun again, he took Tom's as well so he had one in each hand. And as Aerith readied her staff and Wedge nervously grasped his rifle, something moved.

Then it leaped down in front of us, looking as if it had come out of a nightmare. Tall, humanoid, its skin tough and black like obsidian and lined with streaks of glowing red energy. Its long, pointed eyes were the same in its elongated head, and four tentacles sprouted from its back in addition to its two muscled arms. It snarled, looking like some kind of failed Shinra experiment as it surged toward us.

But it wasn't alone. About half a dozen other monsters that looked a lot like it but were smaller and had only one tentacle swarmed out at us from the shadows like bugs erupting out of a hole. They moved fast, sweeping in before we knew it and driving Wedge and I up onto one of the walkways, a wide platform overlooking the area below. Aerith spun her staff at once, blasting two of the creatures with a burst of cold while Biggs filled both of them with bullets.

At the same time, Wedge and I fought the ones nearest to us, three of them. While I cut into them with Buster, he tried hosing them down with his rifle's flame cannon. It didn't do much good, though, and they just kept coming, their tough hides barely even singed. Wedge fell back with a startled shout, yelping in pain when one of the monsters caught him on the arm, claws ripping into him.

I answered with Buster, slicing the thing apart in a flurry of slashes that sent it flying off the platform and across the room. As I drove back the other two closest to us, Wedge grimaced, ignored his bleeding arm, and switched his rifle to bullets, blasting holes into one of the monsters while I quickly cut into its companion.

"Wedge, you okay?" I asked.

He nodded. "Just a scratch, bro. Nothin' to worry about. I'm gonna get an earful from Lena later, though."

I didn't doubt it. "You'll make it back to her."

Just then, the failed experiment leaped up onto the platform with a loud screech, summoning more of its smaller friends. Wedge stumbled back, temporarily stunned by the sound, and I quickly cut down any of the monsters that got close to him until he recovered. Then I went after the leader, dodging its tentacles and clawed arms while Wedge handled the small fry and kept them off my back.

Below us, Aerith and Biggs fought three others, and I realized that the ice spells were really hitting the monsters hard. I didn't need to tell Aerith, though—she saw it herself easily enough and kept the pressure on, using that arcane ward of hers to enhance her magic. It was a good bet that the failed experiment was also weak to cold, but before I could do anything about it, the thing suddenly backed up and threw a pair of poison bombs down at her and Biggs.

They exploded, filling the lower area with toxic green gas for a few seconds and driving Aerith and Biggs back. They managed to get away from it without getting poisoned, but the unknown entities swarmed at them, only one of them down so far. Knowing there wasn't much time, I took advantage of the failed experiment's momentary distraction and sliced at its tentacles. It staggered away and roared in pain, and I knew I'd found a weak point. But then, the monster slammed its fists into the platform, shattering it, and we all fell.

I was still trying to get up when the monster lashed out at me with its tentacles and tried to grab me. But just before they would've caught me, Wedge dove in between us, and they got him instead, binding him tight as he grunted in pain. I sprang to my feet and gripped Buster as I tried to figure out how to free him—If I slashed at the tentacles, I'd risk cutting Wedge, and I didn't want that.

Aerith and Biggs solved the problem, though, striking the monster from behind with a lethal combination of spells and bullets that ripped into its back before it could move. The failed experiment roared but let Wedge go, its tentacles whipping away under the assault. He started to fall forward, but I caught him quickly.

"Easy, Wedge," I told him. "Stay on your feet."

He nodded. "Thanks, bro. Thought that was it for me."

I shook my head. "Not happening."

"Wow!" Wedge grinned.

"Don't let it go to your head," I muttered. "We've still got a monster to kill before we can get outta here."

He gripped his rifle and followed me as I rushed after the monster, which had turned to attack Aerith and Biggs. We'd finally dealt with all of its friends, and it was alone. But it was quick, throwing sizzling balls of lightning at the others and jumping at them. Biggs barely avoided its heavy fist, and it smashed into the nearby wall instead of his face. Then he struck back, firing a rapid stream of bullets from both guns. With a pained shriek, it fell back, hurt but not down yet. When Aerith froze it with another burst of ice, its chest opened.

"Cloud!" she yelled. "Go for the heart! Kill it!"

While Biggs and Wedge kept the monster off balance for me with a barrage of gunfire, I did as Aerith had said, striking Buster right at the thing's heart with a single focused thrust that tore right into its chest to burst out of its back. For a moment, the monster just hung there on the blade, its glowing red eyes gazing balefully at me. Then it croaked, spat up a stream of blood, and slumped forward. With a quick jerk, I pulled Buster free as the monster fell to the floor.

"Glad that's over…" Biggs murmured. He waved a hand in front of his face. "Damn, but those things stink."

Wedge held his nose. "Ugh! You're right, bro."

"You guys okay?" Aerith asked.

Biggs nodded. "Yeah, just a few scratches. Wedge?"

He gave Aerith a thumbs up. "Same!"

"Cloud?" she called to me.

But I wasn't listening. My gaze was on a large hole in a nearby wall. The failed experiment must've broken through it when it had smashed the platform. Parts of the walkway were strewn on the floor along with chunks of rubble. But that wasn't what had caught my attention. It was what was beyond the hole that had made me stop and stare. A chill ran up my spine as I looked at what was in the next room, a place that had to have been sealed off. And I could see why.

There were rows and rows of tall cylinders made out of thick glass, each one of them connected to a network of complex machinery. A few of them were empty, but most had someone inside with cables running from their arms and legs as they floated within what looked like liquid mako. None of them were conscious, and as I gazed at the terrible sight in front of me, a burst of pain erupted in my head and I clutched at my temple, doubling over as the world seemed to shift around me. All this felt almost familiar somehow. But why?

An image suddenly flashed through my mind—me in one of those tubes. But not here. Somewhere else, an old basement of some kind. It didn't make sense, though. I couldn't remember being there, trapped in a prison as if I were some kind of lab rat. I felt like I should've, though. Something just on the edge of memory…

Aerith put a hand on my shoulder. "You alright?"

"What…?" I blinked, the images and pain both vanishing instantly as I snapped back to the present. "Oh, uh… yeah. I think so. Just had a sudden headache. That place, it bothers me."

"I don't blame you," she shivered, looking at it.

Wedge stared. "Whoa… talk about creepy. And all this time it was under our feet and we never even knew it."

"We'll talk about it later," I decided. "Let's move."

But before we could, we suddenly heard something loud pounding its way through the area. The floor shook with every step as whatever it was stomped slowly toward us, but we couldn't see it just yet. Small bits of rubble fell from the ceiling as we looked around. It seemed like we'd woken something up with our fight, and from the sound of it, I figured we were in for another, tougher one.

Wedge about jumped out of his skin a second later when there was a deafening thump as something slammed into a nearby wall from the other side. And then there was another. The concrete cracked after still more impacts, as if it was being hit again and again. Biggs snapped out of his paralysis and tried to get the doors behind us open again, but too late, as the wall finally came apart in a sudden shower of dust and rock and a huge, muscled thing stormed inside.

It was a behemoth.

Massive, at least fifty feet long from its head to the tip of its thick, knoblike tail, with two large, curving horns sprouting from its head. It didn't look like a typical behemoth, though—its hide was jet black with streaks of glowing red, same as the other monsters we'd fought, instead of the usual purple. Must've been some kind of experimental breed. Its teeth were sharp as knives, especially the foot-long canines on the top, and each of its heavy feet had five curved claws. Its eyes were like those of the other monsters—flat, red, and long.

It looked like it had been in another fight, and recently. There were fresh scars across its hide along with multiple stab wounds that looked as if they might've been made only days ago. Someone else had been in here recently besides us and Tom? It had to have been someone skilled in battle to have done so much damage to a behemoth. But apparently, it hadn't been enough. We'd finish it, though.

I drew Buster as I fell back with the others, our gazes locked on the monster in front of us. It stopped for a moment, glared down at us, and roared, the sound deafening in our ears. Then it bared its teeth, pawing the floor as it got ready to attack. The behemoth loomed over us, huge and heavy and strong, and snarled again.

"Oh, shit…" Biggs gaped.