By a Fraction of a Degree

A FFVII Fanfiction work by findthetiger129

Rated T for Violence and Language.

I do not own Final Fantasy VII, or any of the characters, trademarks or likenesses from Final Fantasy VII or its spin-offs That honor goes to Square-Enix.

SOLDIER 2nd Class Eli is an original character.

Part III: Demons

Chapter 57, "…Oh $#&%"

June 17th [ ν ] – εуλ 0008, 10:00 PM, Midgar Standard Time

There was panic in the streets outside as the renegades were finishing their final preparations to pull out of Midgar. Kunsel had gathered up all of his belongings and after finding a sterile covering to wrap Luxiere in so he could carry him safely, he gently lifted the man off the cot and headed towards the exit. Lou and Shalua were waiting at the door, their guns held at the ready before they hurried outside. Elfe, Shears, and Veld followed Kunsel out and down the stairs before they hurried towards the elevator down into the slums, doing their best to avoid the stampede of rushing men, women and children fleeing the soldiers in mako suits. Some civilians were aided by Shinra forces while others moved on their own power. Either way, those who had not opted to stay in their homes were simply trying to get out.

"Rod's at the garage below plate. The van's all ready to go when we get there," Lou reported.

"Good," Veld agreed. "The chances are high that we won't be able to leave if we take too long. If we aren't fast enough, the checkpoints out of the city could all be taken."

"Then we'll just have to be faster than they are," Kunsel said as Shears spared a moment to cast a Wall spell from a materia in the bracer on his left arm, sending a flurry of bullets intended for all of them back at a squad of the enemy soldiers that had just appeared behind them.

They were soon heading down an alley towards the service elevator and Lou started to type in the combination. It was at that moment when there was a loud crashing sound nearby, followed by what Kunsel could have sworn was the sound of a mortar making contact with a nearby building. The others had apparently noticed too.

"What was that?" Shears asked.

Elfe turned her head to look up the alleyway in which they stood, her eyes narrowed in concentration, her hand on her katana. "It sounded big, whatever it was."

Kunsel slowly lowered Luxiere down to the ground as Lou punched in the final portion of the combination. They were just waiting for the elevator now. Cautiously, he went for his gunblade and strode a few paces back the way they had come so he had a view of the main street. There was indeed a large crater in the side of a nearby skyscraper to his left. It was when he looked down the street to his right that he saw the origin of said crater.

Standing in the middle a mostly cleared street, due to most of the fleeing crowds wanting to be a lot farther away from the immediate vicinity right now, stood what could only be described as a huge hulk of a man. He had to be at least one and a half times the height of an average SOLDIER, and probably a few inches taller than that. Further, the blue-haired giant in a custom mako suit with unnaturally glowing yellow eyes (unusual even for a SOLDIER) was wielding what appeared to be a hand cannon that was about as big as he was.

Whatever this guy was, he couldn't possibly be normal. That was about the extent of Kunsel's thoughts before he was forced to dive back into the cover of the alleyway as another blast rent its way through one of the buildings behind him.

Elfe appeared next to him as the tremors from the blast ceased. "What is it?"

"Something we don't want to mess with," Kunsel replied. Looking around, his eyes landed on the crater that was now about ten feet up from where he'd been standing. Had the giant spotted him? Quickly he turned his attention to a huge dumpster that was sitting nearby. Sheathing the gunblade again, he hurried behind it and used every ounce of strength he had to push the thing in between them and the approaching menace. A shockwave vibrated under his boots, closer this time and he heard someone laughing. "You think a container of garbage can stop me little man? That you can stop me?"

He didn't answer, because at that moment, he saw that the elevator had just opened. Seeing that Elfe had dragged Luxiere safely inside, he joined everyone there, just before the gate swung shut. The last thing he saw before their transport sank into the darkness below was the dumpster bursting into a million pieces. He waited with baited breath for a few moments, before another tremor, fainter this time, wracked its way through the elevator car. "What was that thing?" Shears asked aloud after a moment, echoing Elfe's question.

"It was either a huge man or a very small Behemoth," Kunsel said. "Either way, it didn't seem a good idea to fight it." He might be able to hold his own if he didn't have Luxiere to think about, and Shears and the others might have been able to help, but it would take time away from getting out of the city. Time they probably didn't have.

Another tremor rumbled through the elevator and Kunsel looked down at Luxiere's face to find his eyes were open, though they seemed unfocused and he was breathing shallowly. "Azul…" His friend murmured. It was hard to know if he was aware of what he was saying, but Kunsel knelt next to him, offering him a drink of water from a canteen he'd brought with him.

"Just take it easy, we'll be out of here soon," he said as the man took a few small sips. When the elevator finally opened out near the garage where the renegades stored their vehicles, he found himself hoping what he was telling him was true.

June 17th [ ν ] – εуλ 0008, 11:00 PM, Midgar Standard Time

Rufus stood before the large projector in his office, watching as one by one, the marks on the map were slowly but surely disappearing. It seemed that Scarlet and Heidegger had not exaggerated when they had boasted of Deepground's fighting capability. With his own resources reduced from his campaigns against GUARDIAN, it was far too difficult now to withstand the might of this new opposing force.

According to his two remaining members of the board, they had lost contact with the installation a little over three months ago, when an attempted coupe had taken place down in the depths around Reactor 0. It had been on their orders that Hojo had been taken there, but the Professor's fate was unknown at this time. Perhaps it would remain a mystery…

"Sir," Tseng's voice shook him from his thoughts as another unit blinked out of existence. "If we don't retreat to the helicopter soon, there is a high chance the barricades will fall before we can withdraw."

"I know," Rufus agreed. He reached for the building-wide intercom that was installed on his desk. He had never imagined he would have to use it to give the orders he was about to issue. But at this point, if the fight continued, a lot more of his troops would be lost, leaving him unable to fight at all.

"This is Rufus Shinra. All of you are ordered to retreat. Take what you can with you, and keep our civilian infrastructure intact where possible, but you are to withdraw to Kalm immediately. Midgar will be retaken, but only if we can live to fight another day." The sound of his own voice reverberated through the speakers across the breadth of the Shinra building, and many of the SOLDIERs and troopers looked up in shock. The old President never would have done so. He watched through a security camera as one particular SOLDIER battalion on the ground floor began to hold the line to enable the retreat of other troops and employees. A few ran into Deepgrounders on the way out, but the vast majority of civilian employees were being defended. Many were already on their PHSes to their families, imploring them to leave.

At that point, Reno, Rude, and Elena ran up the stairs. "We were able to bar the door," Reno said through short breaths. "But it won't hold for long."

"Then it's time we left as well," Tseng beckoned for Rufus to follow him to the roof. "The helicopter is prepped and ready."

"It truly is time then," Rufus agreed. Falling in step behind Tseng, with Dark Nation at his side, Rufus walked the familiar path out the door of his office towards the helipad, feeling a sense of disbelief that this was actually happening. That the empire his father had built over the course of more than half a century, would suddenly crumble under the heel of a monster of the original President's own making. Irony was a cruel monster indeed.

Shortly after the helicopter took off, he could clearly see several enemy soldiers climbing up the steps to examine his office, and he promised himself, somehow, he would stand in that office again. He may have lost it, but he had fought too long and hard against his own father to win it the first time. He wasn't about to lose it so easily.

June 18th [ ν ] – εуλ 0008, 5:00 AM, Midgar Standard Time

Cissnei brought the small prop-plane she'd borrowed from GUARDIAN's air division in for a landing on a remote strip of highway that she knew wasn't used that much before she and Tifa climbed out of the vehicle and began the short walk towards Kalm. Shortly after Reeve had made the call to Zack and the others the two of them had volunteered to check out the situation there and verify how things had changed since the Shinra communications grid had gone out altogether.

It was close to dawn. As the two of them neared the usually quiet mining town, they found themselves greeted by the site of several encampments spread across the surrounding land, and lines of refugees were still fleeing from the direction of Midgar. The renegade Turk and the martial artist gave each other worried looks as they neared the boundaries of the tent cities, which seemed to be expanding little by little even as they walked past the clearly overwhelmed SOLDIERs and troopers standing guard and sending worried looks in the direction of Midgar. They were too distracted to even bother with the wanted war criminals in their midst. The two of them walked right by one of the regular troopers and he was far too busy handing out blankets to pay any attention.

Tifa looked around feeling overwhelmed by the sea of people. "This is awful," she muttered.

"There were refugees when we took Rocket Town too," Cissnei pointed out. "There were a few taking shelter in Corel when I went to check it out. And Costa Del Sol too. Whenever there's war, there's people who will be displaced, either because of the brutalities of one of the two sides fighting or because they find one side so objectionable they can't stand to live under their tyranny, regardless of who's actually more tyrannical."

"It sounds like you gave this a lot of thought," Tifa said.

"I've done a lot of traveling to scout for us while I've been away. It gave me a lot of time to think," Cissnei replied.

"Was it like this in the Wutai War too?" Tifa asked.

"I was never deployed," Cissnei answered. "But Mao would sometimes tell me stories and he said it was. Veld used to send him a lot since he was part Wutaian and could blend in pretty well on stealth missions."

"Oh…" They continued through the town square, eyes open for anyone they knew, however, they'd made several passes before determining there was no sign of anyone they knew. Tifa caught a glimpse of herself in the window glass of one of the shops, not really paying attention to the new leather vest she was wearing, her thoughts instead directed towards several renegade Turks, and two SOLDIERs who were supposed to be here. It was very possible they were hiding out someplace, but without the communication grid active, they couldn't very easily use their PHS's to find each other. Cissnei had even tried the safe house they had decided ahead of time would be the fallback spot but there had been no sign of them.

"Where would Kunsel have gone?" Tifa wondered aloud as the sky was quickly becoming brighter. She knew for a fact that Cloud and the others were safe for the time being because they were on their way here, but their friend who had stayed behind had not been in contact since Reeve had gotten the call early this morning.

"It's possible they got delayed on the way here," Cissnei suggested. The two of them were now standing outside of the safe house, considering their options. "We'll just have to wait for the others to arrive and make our decisions from there. It couldn't hurt to see if we can find out what Rufus is up to while we're waiting. If they aren't back by the time we are, we can start worrying."

Tifa nodded. "You're right." She paused after a moment before reaching into the front pocket of the half skirt she had taken to wearing over her shorts and producing a notepad and pencil. Shortly afterward, she had slipped a message under the door. "This way, they won't worry," she explained. With that, the two of them looked around the town square for any sign of the Turks or any other indication of the Shinra Company president's whereabouts.

June 18th [ ν ] – εуλ 0008, 7:00 AM

For the past few hours, Elena's mind had been cycling through a whirlwind of shock, disbelief, and intense frustration, bordering on anger. How could this company be so screwed up that its own board members would keep such important information from the President like this? Hadn't Scarlet and Heidegger realized they'd been sitting on top of a ticking time bomb this entire time? Instead of heading things off before they'd spiraled out of control like they should have been doing, they'd had the nerve to keep this information quiet, leaving everyone cowering here in Kalm like a bunch of Mu hiding in their holes. If she ever got a moment alone with those two, she found herself wondering if there would be two fewer board members in the room when she was through.

The two currently ex-board members had been sequestered in a nearby building with a secure room. Of that, Reno and Rude had personally made sure. And now, she and Tseng were returning to Rufus's headquarters in the house at the far end of town.

Her musings were interrupted when up ahead she noticed her boss had paused. Looking in the direction he was glancing, she realized what he had spotted across the town square were several familiar figures in a back alley. Veld was stepping out of the passenger seat of a van. Rod was coming out on the driver's side. But it was the first person coming out the back door that got her full attention. Sis…

She was at once relieved, furious, and worried. What was Tseng going to do? As the three renegade Turks looked up, she could see the fugitives Shears and Elfe climbing out afterward followed by Kunsel, who appeared to be carrying someone. Elena searched her heart, trying to find an answer, even as her hand wavered between the gun in her breast pocket and her tie which she desperately wanted to loosen. Was Tseng going to order her to do it already? She'd made her choice, she decided. She put on the suit… didn't she?

After a moment, Tseng continued walking as though he'd seen nothing and hurried on towards the tower. Elena stared at his back for a moment, and then continued on, not entirely sure what she'd just witnessed.

June 18th [ ν ] – εуλ 0008, 8:00 AM

Freya hurried past the main gate in Kalm, her brow furrowed with worry as the three SOLDIERs followed after her. If the situation hadn't been so serious, it would have been laughable. In her mind, all she could think of was what she'd seen on the news before the communications grid had died. She could only hope the others had made it it out before it was too late.

She hurried into the village, heedless of anything that didn't lead to her goal and made straight for the safe house. Once there, she wrapped on the door in the agreed upon fashion and waited impatiently before it opened and she saw that Shears was the one who answered. "Where's Kunsel?" she demanded.

Shears got out of her way (which was probably for the best), and gestured towards the stairs. She completely ignored the others as she marched up the steps, only remembering to put her shotgun back over her shoulder as she started climbing. It wasn't like she was planning to shoot anyone here…

She only vaguely heard Elfe tell the SOLDIERs to have a seat, before she reached the second floor and hurried down the hall, looking into the first room she could find. Her faintly glowing copper eyes met with a pair of hazel ones and as her vision adjusted she could see he was seated near a bed, where the SOLDIER he'd picked up in front of the reactor was resting, definitely asleep and with fresh bandages on his wounds. She tried to cover her frustration with resignation. "I hope you know I was worried about you," she said. "After the grid went down, I was afraid you'd been trapped in the city."

"It was a close call," Kunsel said. "We got a little delayed because we had to hide out in the canyons for a bit. Those guys that came out of the reactor? Not only were they using vehicles capable of air strikes, but they've started using some of of the weaponry Shinra left behind too." He let out a tired sigh and looked over at the sleeping man. "He's getting worse. He wasn't breathing this shallow back at the Midgar safe house."

He reached for a wet cloth from a bowl on the table, and as he squeezed the water out with his hand so it wouldn't drip before applying it to the man's forehead. She could even tell in the dark that he was upset and her own frustration seemed to fade at that point.

"I know you're doing everything you can," she offered.

"It's not good enough," Kunsel muttered.

For a moment, Freya stood at the door in silence thinking about what she wanted to say before finally walking across the room. "Is there anything I can do?" she asked.

"I don't know," the swordsman replied. "We asked a local doc to take a look at him before we got here. Even if we could get Rayleigh, it'd put her in danger and even she wouldn't be able to do anything we can't. The Geostigma's real advanced… Just moving him made him bleed more. We had to change the bandages again too." He gestured to an IV leading to a bag filled with a familiar glowing blue-green substance. "At least someone here knew where to find some mako and that let us give him some so he won't die from the withdrawal but…" He stopped, taking a deep breath as he seemed to have realized he was getting too loud and stopped. "Why did it have to be like this?" He asked after a moment.

Freya took a step closer and put a hand on his shoulder. It was as tense as the tone of his voice. "I wish I had an answer," she said, meeting his gaze solemnly as he looked up in surprise at the touch and after a moment, she felt his right hand curl around hers, a silent request for reassurance. The moment was broken by Shear calling up the stairs. "You two better get down here! The grid's back and this is something you need to see!"

Kunsel stood and the two of them hurried from the room and back down the stairs to find themselves looking at a television that was situated in the living room. Everyone was watching it intensely.

In front of the screen stood a single person, it was hard to tell under the ornate black cloak and and the helmet whether or not it was a man or a woman, but the person appeared to be tall, and through the eyeholes, Freya recognized the tell-tall glow of blue mako-eyes.

The person waited a moment or two before speaking, revealing through the sound of his voice that he was probably male. "Good morning citizens of Midgar, and the surrounding areas. I come to you today to inform you of the identity of your new rulers and masters. I am Keter, one of several currently active Restrictors who up until now held jurisdiction over the subterranean Sector 0, unofficially known as 'Deepground.'"

"So the rumors were true," Kunsel murmured, and Freya noticed his fist clenched at his side.

"It would seem that way," Veld agreed.

Keter continued. "We have now been given control of the eight sectors of Midgar, on behalf of your new leader. As you have seen, all vestiges of the Shinra Electric Power Company have been driven beyond the city limits. As such, I take this opportunity to declare the city under indefinite martial law. Any outspoken Shinra loyalists will be executed outright. This is necessary to ensure obedience. Those who would choose to continue living would do well not to resist."

"Fat chance of that happening," Rod commented. "If Rufus has anything to say about it, he'll go in there and kick their asses."

Lou shushed him as the Restrictor continued speaking. "For the time being, any act of violence will be met with equal force, not only by our regular troops but by our special division, known among our number as the Tsviets. I assure you they are an even greater elite fighting force than SOLDIER at its height, and that any among its number can fight at levels higher than that of 1st Class SOLDIERs, perhaps even equal to Sephiroth in his prime. You have been warned.

I now call on Shinra's acting president to negotiate a surrender. Should that happen, arrangements will be made for the peaceful transference of the rest of the Shinra company's resources. Further, to all members of the organization known as GUARDIAN, and all citizens of the last empire of Wutai, the same terms are extended to you. In the instance that you fail to comply, Deepground will march on the central city for each of your territories, and the surrounding towns will follow. I can personally guarantee that each and every one of them will be burned to the ground. Should any of you wish to avoid these consequences, your leadership shall make contact within one week.

Any resistance will be met with a guarantee that every man or woman who stands with the leadership of these organizations shall be terminated on sight. This, 'President' Shinra, 'General' Fair, and 'Emperor' Kisaragi, is your only opportunity."

With that, the screen went blank, leaving nothing but snow as the communication grid was once more deactivated. "What now?" Shalua wondered.

Kunsel looked back over at Veld, his expression hard and suspicious. "You knew, didn't you."

Veld shook his head. "I had heard some rumors and reports from my subordinates of encounters like this, but I was instructed when it came to my attention that I was not authorized to have information on them. If I did know the details, do you think I wouldn't have found some way to warn Tseng when Rufus took power?"

Kunsel folded his arms, apparently too angry to say anything.

"What now sir?" Lou asked.

"We must contact the other renegades," Veld said turning to Rod. "I want you getting our server up and running immediately, we can still route it through the Junon grid if we're careful. I want every renegade that can to be here by Midnight tomorrow night. This is an emergency."

"What about us?" It was one of the other SOLDIERs that had spoken from where the three of them had been sitting as the Restrictor had given his announcement.

"That depends on what you can do to help." Everyone glanced towards the front hall to see Zack, followed by everyone who had left for Nibelheim, and the two renegades they'd met there. He looked over at Kunsel. "You all right?" he asked.

"Terrific," Kunsel replied sarcastically. "Did you hear…?"

Zack nodded, his jaw tight in an angry grimace, and held out a small audio device that Cid had built to be tied to the Highwind's com channels. "That guy started broadcasting right as we finished walking to the town limits and the crew patched it through to us. We heard the whole thing."

"It doesn't paint a promising picture, that's for sure," Shears commented, walking back to the living after having locked the front door again.

It was at that moment when Cloud appeared behind Zack, his eyes scanning the room for someone. Finally he asked "Where's Tifa?"

Kunsel pulled a note out of his pocket and handed it to him. "I found this when I got here," he said. "I didn't think it wise to go looking just yet when I found it but that was about an hour ago."

Cloud looked over what was written and the concern showed on his face. "They've been gone too long," he said. "We need to find them."

June 18th [ ν ] – εуλ 0008, 8:45 AM

The sun was sliding higher up on the horizon as Cloud and Freya drew closer to the building where Rufus was housed. The huntress hadn't appeared to have seen any evidence of their comrades' whereabouts. The others were busy trying to get communications up and running again.

The two of them crept through a back alley near the house, and Cloud recognized one of the SOLDIERs standing guard at the front door. Eli had just taken off his helmet for a moment to brush some hair out of his face before putting it back on. It was a small comfort to know at least some of their allies among the SOLDIER ranks had made it out safely.

The two of them quickly ducked out of sight. No sense compromising anyone's position when they didn't know Rufus's at the moment. Ducking through the morning shadows, they at last came to a small side street by the house and that was when Freya caught sight of something in a patch of mud. "Tifa was definitely here," she said. "Those are tread marks from her sneakers."

Cloud knelt next to her. "Are you sure?" he asked.

She looked mildly annoyed by the question. "Of course I am," she said. "Judging by the slide marks here… and here…" She pointed them out with the hand that wasn't gripping the shoulder strap of her shotgun, "it looks like she took a fighting stance… and then went… that way…" She stood and started for the back of the house.

At that point all vestiges of the gravel and cobblestones were gone entirely, leaving a backyard of dirt that looked like it had once been maintained as a backyard lawn. Probably made infertile by the effects of Midgar's reactors if Cloud were to venture a guess. However, it was at this point when Freya stopped.

"What the…?" The uncompleted question was flush with incredulity.

"What is it?" Cloud asked.

Freya pointed at the ground near a patch of dead grass. "See this here? There was a man standing here. But he wasn't a SOLDIER. These are not SOLDIER boot treads. They have the wrong pattern on the ball of the foot, and on the heel too."

"It could be a new pattern…" Cloud guessed impatiently. Freya had shown him a little bit about tracking in the last few months, but at the first sign of combat boots, he was perfectly ready to march right into the building they were crouched behind and demand where Tifa was right now. If Rufus had done anything to harm her at all, the President's life was forfeit as far as he was concerned, and he didn't care how many he had to plow through to make good on that threat.

"Maybe, but that's not the oddest things about it…" Freya continued, pointing to the set of tracks they'd been following. "Tifa's tracks stop here. It's almost like she was alone at this point, and this man's prints? He only took two steps at most. But he had to have come from somewhere… There's no way he could have appeared out of thin air… right?" She frowned as she voiced the problem. "But if so, how did he get here? He couldn't have jumped. The trajectory would have shown as skid marks… and where did he go?"

It was at that moment when Cloud heard a noise and his hand went for the First Sword.

"Looking for something?" Reno stepped out from behind the far wall.

Cloud didn't bother with pleasantries. "What did you do with Tifa?" He asked gruffly.

"Cloud… I'm not sure they had anything to do with this…" Freya said. "The evidence doesn't add up."

"You better listen to her," Reno said, his voice serious. "We didn't. But we did hear some noise out here. Rude was about to do something about it, but he didn't have time. We have reason to believe the guy got Cissnei too."

Rude came into sight around the side of the house, a disk in his gloved hand.

"All right, what happened then?" Cloud demanded, still not quite sure he believed them. Zack might be willing to take the remaining Turks at face value sometimes, or at least he trusted them to act like Turks and do what the Shinra Company had ordered them to do. But the fact remained that their last standing orders had been to kill GUARDIAN members on sight if they got the opportunity. Cloud saw no reason to believe those orders had been changed, even under the current circumstances.

Reno shook his head looking over at the man who had not taken his hand away from the First Sword. "Before we talk, you might want to take your hand away from that sword. Just sayin'."

Freya gave Reno a nod. "All right then. As long as you aren't planning to shoot us full of holes, I'm sure we can talk like civilized people. Right?" She glanced sideways at Cloud.

After a tense moment, Cloud slowly let his hand ease away from the hilt of his sword. He was still very suspicious, even if, admittedly, they were the ones trespassing. "What happened?" he demanded, his eyes narrowed in a glare.

Reno relaxed a tiny bit once he saw that Cloud wasn't planning the immediate execution of violence. "We saw the whole thing recorded from that camera up there," he pointed to a security camera that was angled at them from the far corner of the house. He reached into his pocket revealing a disk. "You could search our headquarters if we were to let you but you wouldn't find her. Some guy showed up and poofed her and, we guess Cissnei too, off somewhere. We think it was most likely Midgar, based on our sources."

It was Freya's turn to give Reno a look of disbelief. "Poofed? Like he teleported? Because that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Even an Exit materia only creates a distraction and then increases your speed so you can run really fast."

Reno seemed unperturbed. "You'll think differently when you see what this guy did yo. Seems he was one of Deepground's Tsviets. Some guy they call Nero the Sable."

Glad to be back guys! It was a nice couple of weeks and while I'm still not quite happy with where my backlog is, there's a little bit more of a buffer now. I may go for another break in the second week of May, but that's a ways off, so we'll see.

See ya next week!