Cloud followed Yulan hand over foot making a conscious effort not to look down.
"How you doing down there, Barret?"
A grunt echoed up from below, caught on dry undersurface winds.
"Grrrrrgh, I'ma doin! I'ma doin. An' then I'ma do you in real good you pussy sonofa—"
Red squirmed on the big man's shoulder, windmilling his tail in Barret's face. The massive man used his muscled gun-arm to keep the dog holstered, while grabbing the rungs with one hand. If he slipped, it was a long fall down.
"Wit the way I'm sweatin, it's like I'm a big black rain cloud, Cloud! Hey, you hear me up there? I'M JUST A LITTLE BLACK RAIN CLOUD, PAY NO ATTENTION TO LITTLE ME!"
Cloud couldn't hold in a chuckle, while Barret hollered on like the world was ending.
"Dog, you's almost as fat as Cloud's sword."
"If you'd stop whining and climb faster we might actually get somewhere!" yelled Tifa, bringing up the rear. "It's not like the view is the greatest down here!"
"You can it, girl! Be honored! If I don't pull my lower back, I'm bringing sexy back!"
"Hey! Don't start with me! I don't want to hear about back problems!"
"How much farther, Yulan?" called Cloud. The little girl shadowed a hand over her brow.
"I can't see that far. It's too dark."
At that, Aerith let go of the railing below Cloud and Floated up toward the Plate. She disappeared into the silent darkness for a moment, until her voice echoed down to them.
"It's not far! About a hundred more rungs!" she called. That wasn't too encouraging to an exhausted Barret.
They reached the cusp of the Plate where Yulan opened a service hatch. They climbed in to flop exhausted on a durasteel walkway, while Barret passed the excited dog up to them. They pulled the big man through, and he near collapsed with tweety chocobo chicks flying around his head.
Yulan lead them down red-lit service corridors in the interior of Midgar's floating Plate. The hunk of durasteel was kept up through the process of mining Mako, and had to be secured to the ground with massive steel cables lest it float away. A manhole took them topside into a back alley, and they gasped.
The Shinra Building leered directly before them across a turnoff to the highway, a sheer monumental techno-horror resembling a racecar engine. Searchlights scanned the sky from its apex, falling on smog-cover as thick as another Plate.
"How are we getting inside?" asked Cloud, and Yulan pointed away from the main gate to a chute off the side. "The Ventilation Shaft. Oh how original."
"Let's get in and get out fast before anyone sees us," said Aerith, but Cloud turned a stern eye on her.
"Not you."
"What?"
"You're staying out here. I'll bet Shinra would love to get their hands on the last Ancient One."
"You expect me to stay out here and hold your dog?"
"I'm surprised I let you within fifty feet of the building. Besides…" Cloud chucked her a new pack of Slims. "You should quit. You're too cute for them."
Aerith glared up at Cloud, who threw her a teasing smile. Oh he was in trouble and he loved it. But Tifa caught that little pass and a hidden fire fell across her eyes. She was in a mood for the rest of the night.
Yulan hid in the shadows of the alleyway waiting for the last cars to pass. She darted out and they chased her across the road. The little street-ninja leapt to the top of the guard wall and held the barbed wire up with her short sword, while Barret knelt down to help Tifa and Cloud up the wall. They pulled him up afterward.
A pebble in hand, Yulan took out the security camera, while they raced to jump into the vent shaft. Before climbing in, Barret caught sight of a looped cord of rope left by some maintenance workers. He threw it over his shoulder and climbed in.
They belly-crawled their way through darkness, following the sound of Yulan's scraping body against the metal. When light began to filter through cracks in the sheets, they knew they were inside. Code silence went into full effect.
Yet something dragged behind them like a body. Tifa glared back at Barret.
"Why did you bring the rope?" she whispered.
"Ya always needs rope. It's good to have."
"What so we can hang ourselves before getting caught for dragging around fifty feet of bull rope in a vent shaft?"
"Shh."
Cloud hushed them as voices echoed from the hallway below. A scientist and an executive-type spoke in muffled tones.
"Dr. Hojo, it is as we feared. The Fal'Cie have awoken and the specimens are on the move."
"We have nothing to fear. They will never reach Jenova in time."
"If the Crystals are awake, they will not produce the royal jelly that comprises Mako, and Midgar's energy stores will rapidly deplete."
"We will release an insecticide down into the Mako chambers. Hopefully it will put the ones in Midgar back to sleep until we can apprehend their errand-boy."
Cloud held his breath in the ventilation shaft, a cold feeling creeping up the back of his neck as the two men continued.
"I trust this meeting will be kept confidential."
"Of course. Unnecessary panic is of no use to us. Have your agents observe and document. It's the Turks' problem now."
"If you say so, Doctor…" The man pulled out his ID badge and slid it through a cardslot on a hallway door. "Damn, stupid scratched-up keycard. Care to swipe me through, Doctor?"
Cloud shoved his way over to peer through the ventilation slits. He peeled his eyes at Hojo swiping his keycard and punching in his passcode on the number pad. Cloud discerned it by the finger movements he imitated on his cellphone. Got it.
When the two men had gone, they continued to follow Yulan through the labyrinthine shaft. When she held up her closed fist, they stopped over a clean white room that looked like something out of this one movie about impossible missions. A computer terminal sat smack in the middle, not in the least bit worried about the unguarded ventilation shaft right above it.
Cloud kicked the vent door open but Barret stopped him.
"Wait! Take the rope!"
"He doesn't need any rope you bullheaded block!"
"Ya always needs rope!"
"No he doesn't!"
"Would you guys be quiet!"
"Take the stupid fucking rope!"
"Cloud, just go!"
"Here!"
"Wait!"
"Oh snaps!"
He fell through the vent door and ended up tangled in rope at the computer terminal. Good grief, Cloud Strife.
Untangling himself, he fell smack into the spin chair. Don't touch the floor. Nothing would probably happen if he did but he kept his boots on the chair legs out of paranoia. Too many action movies. He logged in with Dr. Hojo's name and passcode, and did a search for JENOVA. 4 gigabytes of files flew up in front of him on the screen. He clicked the biggest one and followed the file train down the rabbit hole.
.
—THE JENOVA PROJECT—
1. Abstract – Successful recreation of a Cetra from 2000 year old excavated remains.
1. 1. Cetra – Also known as "Ancient Ones," they were the original lifeforms to inhabit this planet. Historical records indicate that this race possessed a keen ability to channel Mako into a force known as "Magic," granting them extraordinary abilities. Status: Exterminated.
1. 1. 1. Aerith Gainsboro
1. 1. 1. 1. Female/24 years old. Home Address…
1. 1. 1. 1. 1. Last living Cetra sample. Needed to facilitate refusion. Special Instructions: Monitor and apprehend TBD.
1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. Known Accomplices – [Name Redacted]
.
Cloud's eyes hovered over the folder that bore Aerith's name. It wasn't the name she'd given him, but the same as the one on her diploma. Her file also did not say she had no known accomplices, whose name was redacted? Refusion? Cloud followed the folder trail as far down as it would take him.
.
1. Project "S"
1. 1. 1st Generation Precursor to Project Gemini
1. 1. 1. [DELETED]
.
Cloud pursed his lips as the folder train ended. His thoughts whirled like downloading data. Okay, successful recreation of a Cetra? Well, where is it? He scrolled back up to the JENOVA tab.
.
1. The corpse of Jenova lies scattered at twelve locations so as to prevent refusion.
1. 1. Location 1…
.
There was that refusion word again, but what followed was a list of Mako Reactors dotted across the continent. Cloud promptly committed them to memory with a mnemonic, but his mind froze at the last location, which held a file train all its own.
.
1. 1. Nibelheim
.
He forced himself to breathe. His last military deployment with Shinra leered like a lightning rod on the screen. This is what happened, the answers! How did he get here? Why couldn't he remember anything? What went down? He clicked the file tab with wide eyes.
.
1. 1. 1. [Name Redacted]
1. 1. 1. Cloud Strife
1. 1. 1. Sephiroth
.
Ohmygod this is it. His hands shook as he clicked the Mission file.
.
1. 1. 1. 1. [DELETED]
.
NO! He glanced at the folder details. They had all been edited on the same day exactly one year ago. Cloud wouldn't let this one get away. He pulled up a systems log confirming his suspicion. All the deleted data had been copied to a disk on that exact same date. What cruel cover-up was going on here?
The drive had been wiped and now the trail ran cold. Cloud had reached the bottom of the rabbit hole and come up empty, unless…He scrolled back above the JENOVA tab.
.
1. Shinra Family Heraldry
.
Boring, boring, boring…
.
1. 1. 1. 1. Don Corneo
.
Wait, what the—
Cloud clicked the tab and uncovered mountains of sales records, snapshots of criminal cartels, and schematics for bio-weaponry. An expose of weapons and drug rings tied to the Shinra elite laid before him. The Turks sold contraband from the R&D Department to crime lords, where they'd trickle down to the various underground syndicates throughout the city. The gangs were kept alive by companies bribing music labels that pushed rap hits to the top of the charts, making impressionable youth think breaking the law was "cool," hence providing the for-profit prisons with a steady stream of inmates and revenue. Lists of high profile names of companies that had bought into the scandal lay in alphabetical order. The Triads and Avalanche were at the bottom of the rung. Once weapons and contraband got to them, the Turks would take out the terrorists, seize their assets, and send them back to the top of the chain, where the whole cycle would start over again. Cloud's stomach turned.
What could the Shinra family possibly be spending all this cash on?
.
1. Description of distributions of seized funds from DeepUnderground
1. 1. Assets used to fund the JENOVA Project
1. 1. 1. JENOVA facilitates the creation of homunculi to lift the "family curse," an illness suffered collectively by all members of the Shinra family line.
1. 1. 1. 1. Project Gemini
1. 1. 1. 1. 1. Abstract: [Deleted]
1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. [Name Redacted]
1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. [Name Redacted]
1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. Cloud Strife
.
Cloud gasped at seeing his name on the screen, and that he had a folder trail. The rabbit hole ran deeper, and yet something in his core told him not to follow. He clicked the tab anyway.
The folder contained a single document. Cloud opened it to find a Kill Contract staring him in the face. Contractor: Wedge Slade. Target: Cloud Strife. The details disclosed that he was to be assassinated if the Turks were unable to apprehend him alive, all accomplices were to be killed, and added duties included surveillance and personal morale sabotage. A lightning bolt hit Cloud that every time he and Tifa had argued, Wedge had been in the room. A knot in his stomach formed, and then he saw the numeral amount his life was worth.
He stopped, like a collective gut-punch. Time seemed to freeze in an endless moment, burning his retinas into a pulsating screen. Somehow, seeing a finite number next to his name made everything real. Cloud x-ed out of the file system. He'd seen enough.
He footlaced his way back up to the vent shaft, where Tifa and Barret pulled him through.
"What did you find?" Tifa prodded, but he said nothing. "Cloud?"
He sighed in a somber silence for a long moment. "Let's just get out of here."
They crawled back the way they'd come but froze over the SOLDIER cafeteria. Voices filtered up to them.
"Hear what happened to AVALANCHE? The SeeD's got them all and made taxidermy out of 'em. Haw haw!"
Barret armed the sniper eye of his arm-cannon.
"Barret! No!"
"Lemme at these po-po sonofa—"
A creak, and the vent collapsed under them. They toppled to ground smack in the middle of the cafeteria, where a mess load of SOLDIER's ripped weapons out. Barret popped to his feet with his canon aimed.
"Hello boyz. Cop killaz!"
He fired a flash bomb that knocked everyone back, while Cloud, Tifa, and Yulan rushed up in a party line with him.
"I can't fight them! I can't use magic!" Tifa panicked.
"It's alright," Cloud assured. "Neither can they."
SOLDIER's in 3rd Class grey uniforms tore out their swords to attack. Rookies. They rushed in while Cloud leapt forward.
"AT ATTENTION!" he called, and everyone stopped confused. A 1st Class Black uniform stood before them. Cloud just chuckled with an evil grin. "Tehe, suckers."
He cast Blizzard bolts that threw the first wave back, and it was on.
Tifa dove in low and came up in a spin, one sword following the other. She slammed full on into a SOLDIER's ribs and kicked him away to cross-block another slash above her. Yulan whipped in a flash like scorpion tails across his stomach, and his guts spewed onto Tifa's boots. Eww.
Cloud went to town on these rookie tryhards, slamming them out of the park like a nine-iron. But the reinforcements that came rocked blue uniforms, 2nd Class swords. These guys could use magic. Tifa took a Fira bolt straight to the chest while someone cast Quake on Yulan and Barret, knocking them out cold. Cloud's Mako infusion protected him against such low-level attacks, but now it was him against the entire army, and he couldn't leave his friends!
Prepared to stand and fight to the death, he stopped at seeing someone in the rear flanks…a lone infantrykid with blonde hair. Eyes locked, the world vibrated, red hue painting his vision again.
An impact on the back of his head, and everything fell black.
.
[Received Key Card]