The Future Imperfect
AN – This has been a difficult chapter to write – in fact, large sections of it have been rewritten several times! Thank you for the response to the previous chapter – it's been so positive. Particular thanks go to those who favourite, follow or review as it really helps me feel that people are enjoying the work.
This time, a few more revelations and a bit more soul searching.
Chapter Six
Even Cloud struggled to keep the smile off his face when he chanced a glance sideways to look at Genesis. The redhead was muttering constantly as he stomped around the warehouse, dispatching several of the small monsters they had come across with an angry slash of his sword. The entertainment value in the fact that he was doing it whilst dressed as a middle-aged foreman wasn't lost on Cloud. Despite not needing to wear disguises until they had passed through the graveyard into the Sector Seven slums, they had decided it was safer just to change now. After all, all three SOLDIERs were particularly noticeable. Aerith had also confessed that she wasn't sure she'd ever be able to pin the cloak around Sephiroth properly again if she undid it.
Cloud snuck a glance at Sephiroth next. The SOLDIER had pushed the hood down as it really wasn't necessary in the factory, but that just highlighted the slightly bemused expression he was sporting. Another expression that Cloud couldn't help compare to the Sephiroth in his memories. But it was an expression Cloud was becoming familiar with, having been 'Aerith-ed' himself several times over the last couple of days. The girl was a force of nature in herself and even the combined might of SOLDIER stood no chance.
And not-SOLDIERs, too. They were all doomed. In the nicest possible way.
They passed by a vending machine that was pumping out tinny music. Tifa paused and looked it over. "I wonder how long this has been here for?" She mused, tapping a finger against her chin. "How come it still has power when everything else doesn't?"
"It's really creepy." Aerith shuddered next to her. Cloud sighed and moved on without her to the door into the control room. In the centre there was a large terminal, still illuminated with emergency lighting. Angeal approached it and began to tap away on the keyboard, Sephiroth hovering over his shoulder.
With a low hum, the power cut entirely, plunging the room into darkness. At the same time, the door they had entered through slammed shut behind them.
"What the-" Cloud muttered, before diving out of the way of a metal beam flying towards him. A second dive pushed Angeal out of the way of another as the SOLDIER was trying to power the terminal back up. Sephiroth was batting debris away with his Masamune, the long blade singing through the air as desks and chairs flew at him. As soon as there was a brief lull, he shed the cloak he was wearing, dropping it carefully on the floor at the side of the room.
"Thanks." Angeal grunted as Cloud helped him to his feet. Through the window on the side of the building he could see Aerith, Tifa and Genesis watching on, faces shocked. Aerith drummed urgently on the glass.
"Look out!"
Turning back, Cloud saw an increasing mass of ghosts coalescing into one giant monster.
"Well, this is shit." Cloud grumbled, causing Angeal to sigh in agreement. Sephiroth huffed impatiently and launched forward with his blade held up in front of him, unleashing a powerful attack. Unfortunately, it sailed straight through the incorporeal ghoul without resistance, the momentum he carried meaning that he was forced to roll to regain his feet and slid into the wall of the room.
Cloud readied a strong fire attack, which soon knocked it back and caused it to change appearance.
"Now!" Angeal called, running forwards with the Buster Sword aloft. Both he and Sephiroth landed hits on the ghoul before it turned translucent again, at which point Cloud hit it with another burst of flame. They repeated the process another couple of times before the ghoul dissipated into a series of bright orbs that slowly drifted away.
"Are you guys ok?" Tifa called as she was finally able to enter the room. Cloud nodded at her whilst watching Aerith who was looking at where the ghoul had last appeared, hands clasped in front of her. Before Cloud could approach, the lights turned back on suddenly as the power started up again.
Blinking away the bright light, Cloud shook his head. "Come on, let's get back to the crane."
With the power back on, it was a simple matter to shift the broken carriages out of the way to clear their exit from the maintenance facility.
Outside they found that they were still in the train graveyard, but closer now to the Sector Seven boundary. There still wasn't an obvious path through, they soon found themselves in a dead end with an engine surrounded by old carriages.
"I wonder if this still works?" Aerith asked, looking at the engine thoughtfully. Cloud shrugged and leapt up into the old driving compartment, Tifa and Aerith following. The SOLDIERs waited below, correctly guessing that they wouldn't be able to fit.
Luckily, Cloud managed to kick start it to life without too much hassle and moved it forwards, shunting carriages to create a path through. It finally came to rest against a large container, lurching to a stop and causing Aerith to put her hands out to steady herself. As she did so, she knocked the power button for the train radio. The radio crackled to life, full of static but eventually voices came through as it picked up a distant transmission.
"What's that?" Genesis asked, listening in from his position on the ground near the driving compartment. He frowned as his hearing picked out some of words. "Can you make it any clearer?"
"I'm trying." Aerith told him, playing with one of the dials. Eventually she managed to get the words clear enough for them to make out properly.
"…plate separation code is….crackle …got it?" Aerith gasped while Tifa clutched the edge of the train with a whispered 'no…'.
"Yeah, yeah of course I do! We can drop the damn thing whenever… It's just that…"
"Reno, what's happening? Do we have a problem?"
Genesis frowned. "Reno, why is that name familiar?" A gesture from Sephiroth cut him off as the speaker continued to talk.
"Not really. Small arms fire from some local boys trying to defend the pillar."
"More would be heroes, hm? Sending reinforcements. The more players that take the stage, the better."
"So that's what we are, huh?"
"Contact me when the mission is complete." The radio fell silent as it no longer picked up any transmission. The three SOLDIERs looked amongst themselves, dread curling in their stomachs.
Aerith turned to Cloud and Tifa, who was staring ahead of her blankly with tears welling in her eyes.
"Tifa…" Cloud started, then tailed off as he had no idea what to say.
"They're really going to drop the plate…" Tifa said shakily.
"They won't if Barret and the others have anything to say about it." Cloud told her. Aerith nodded at him.
"All we can do now is keep moving."
Tifa ducked her head so they couldn't see the emotions warring on her face. "Please, just please let us be in time."
Cloud jumped down from the train, eyeing the SOLDIERs clustered outside.
"How many people live in the Sector Seven slums?" Angeal asked sombrely.
Cloud shrugged. Tifa spoke up from behind him, the tremor obvious in her voice. "Tens of thousands… I don't know exactly."
"What is Shinra thinking?" Genesis asked as he rubbed his brow with a gloved hand, nudging the flat cap out of the way absently. "What on Gaia did you do for them to retaliate like this?"
"Does it matter?" Tifa spat at him. "Regardless of what we've done, they are going to kill tens of thousands of innocent people, and for what? To get back at us for the sake of a couple of mako reactors? They're monsters." She strode off, moving through the graveyard with more determination than ever. Cloud followed her, giving the SOLDIERs a long look as he did so. Aerith paused near them, though.
"I know you work for Shinra, but I'm sure that even seven years ago Shinra wasn't a good thing. Please… don't put blind loyalty ahead of what is right." She smiled sadly before following her friends.
Angeal looked at his fellow SOLDIERs. Sephiroth looked up at the Sector Seven plate that stood above them, blocking out any view of the sky from the slums below.
"If there are tens of thousands below the plate, there will be the same number living on it." He commented. His gaze never wavered, as though he might be able to see the houses and businesses plate-side if he just stared long enough.
"Will they have been evacuated?" Angeal asked, already knowing the answer.
Genesis scoffed. "Unlikely. If Shinra are doing something like this… then they will make themselves out to be a victim somehow. Maybe a structural flaw, or terrorist attack. It doesn't suit their narrative for them to be warning residents. They are simply condemning them."
"Could this have been us?" Sephiroth wondered aloud. "If we were here now… would we have been sent to crush them?"
"I'd like to think that we would have refused." Angeal said slowly. "We aren't Turks, after all. We have a conscience."
"Do we?" Genesis asked bitterly. "You didn't spend much time in Wutai, Angeal. I'm not sure we are any better than Turks."
Looking up, Angeal realised that the rest of their party had travelled some distance away. "Come on. We're here now, there might be something we can do."
They caught up to Cloud as he was waiting for Aerith to descend a ladder ahead of him. A buzzing noise above them was caused by a quartet of new helicopters flying towards the pillar holding up the plate.
"Why am I not surprised?" Cloud muttered, watching their progress across the sky. "C'mon, let's go."
"It's not far now!" Tifa called as they headed down a corridor between an old warehouse and a wire fence. "We made it!" She ran up to the fence and grasped it tight, looking at the large support pillar up ahead of them. She sobbed once and pressed her head to the fence as a helicopter banked above them and flew back into the fray.
Angeal flexed his fingers where he held his hands down by his sides. The support pillar rose in front of them, a huge column of metal and concrete that stretched all the way to the plate above. Alongside the pillar ran a maintenance staircase, winding its way up the side to a distant platform just underneath the plate. Even from this distance, the flashes of light showed the battle that was being fought all the way up the metal stairway. Tifa ducked under the wire and ran towards the fighting. Even at this distance they could hear the speakers on the helicopter blaring loudly.
"Attention Avalanche! You are surrounded! Stand down and surrender to public security immediate. Shinra does not negotiate with terrorists. Resist and we will use lethal force. I repeat…"
Angeal tuned the words out as meaningless propaganda as he followed Tifa's progress, past the Sector Seven station where normally trains would ferry workers from the slums to the plate above. Tifa propped to a standstill when a stream of cloaked figures rose from the ground in front of her.
"Please, let us through!" Aerith cried, her hand on her necklace. Cloud swiped at the nearest one with his sword.
"What are you?"
The hooded figures made no sound but continued to block their way to the pillar. They had an uncanny resemblance to Sephiroth in his current outfit, except where the face should be was instead a gaping hole. The bottoms of the cloaks trailed away into ragged tatters floating as the shades drifted in the air.
"These are the creatures from the sewer." Angeal noted, drawing his sword.
"We have to get through, at all costs!" Aerith cried, brandishing her staff. Tifa flew at the nearest to her with her fists and feet flying, Cloud following suit. The three SOLDIERs jumped into the fray, but despite their firepower nothing they could do was having an impact on the shades. As soon as one was defeated another took its place, a seemingly endless supply that was doing nothing except delay them.
Until, suddenly, the shades all disappeared. The last of the cloaked figures hovered, it's empty hood turned towards them as though assessing them, before it too flew away in the direction of the pillar.
Aerith clasped her hands together below her chin and closed her eyes tightly, as though in prayer.
"Come on!" Tifa shouted, leading the way to the base of the pillar. As they arrived, they saw tens of people milling around with fear on their faces. A shout had them all looking up, just in time to see a figure fall from the edge of the support pillar. They dropped to the ground and lay on their side, groaning.
"Wedge!" Tifa cried out, running over to him. Cloud reached him first and helped him to stand.
"You ok?"
"Cloud!" Wedge greeted him with relief evident in his voice. "It's Shinra! They're trying to take out the pillar!"
"We know," Cloud told him as he assessed the rotund man for injury. Wedge was dirty and covering in cuts and bruises. His red bandana was lopsided and his metal shoulder pauldrons dented and scuffed.
"I have to go back!" Wedge insisted, traying and failing to get up. "Barret and the others are still-"
"Stop." Cloud commanded, keeping a heavy hand on his shoulder to try to stop him moving and aggravating his injuries. "Stay with Wedge," he told Tifa and Aerith. "I'm going up."
"Sure." Aerith replied, already moving to tend the fallen man.
"We'll come with you." Angeal said, taking a step towards the pillar.
"No. No way." Tifa blocked his route. "You work for Shinra. How could we trust you?" Her eyes were glassy with unshed tears but brimming with inner fire.
"We may work for Shinra but we have never signed up for this." Angeal replied, gesturing up at the pillar. Cloud had already gone, vanishing up the stairs and batting away bullets as he did so.
"If you really want to help, then you can get them out of here." Tifa insisted, gesturing to the scared people milling around. She turned her attention back to her friend, that Angeal could see was being healed by Aerith as a gentle green glow washed over him.
Angeal looked around, torn. The people there were innocents, but somewhere up above them was a fight to the death. Exactly what each side was fighting for, he still didn't fully know. A small part of him was still in denial that Shinra would drop the plate on a whole sector regardless of the collateral damage, but the mounting evidence suggested otherwise. He looked up at the Shinra helicopter firing relentlessly on the poorly armed civilians who were defending their homes and lives with everything they had.
And just like that, his waning loyalty to the company he worked for died.
A rattling sound heralded danger as a set of large metal pipes came tumbling down the outside of the staircase towards them. The Rapier appearing next to him told him he wasn't the only one who had seen, but before either he or Genesis could do anything Tifa cried out.
"Get down!" With a jump she spun into the air, driving the pipes away with a booted heel.
"Thank you," gasped Aerith from where she had thrown herself over Wedge to protect him from the brunt of it. Tifa nodded in reply, looking back up at the pillar.
"That was a close one," Wedge said, stumbling to his feet following Aerith's curing spells. Another explosion rocked the stairwell leading up the pillar.
"I can't stay here, I have to help them." Tifa said to Wedge and Aerith, apology in her eyes.
"Go." Aerith reassured her. "Follow your heart."
Tifa dashed by, only to stop at the last minute as she remembered someone important.
"Aerith, there's a bar in the centre of town, Seventh Heaven. I need you to-"
"Get Marlene to safety, right? Don't worry, I'll find her."
A flash of confusion crossed Tifa's face briefly, before she clasped Aerith's hands tightly. "Thank you." With that, she turned and ran.
"Come on," Wedge said to Aerith. "Seventh Heaven is this way." He turned towards the town and the three SOLDIERs who were still waiting there.
"What can we do?" Angeal asked again, more urgently. Wedge stopped in front of him and Angeal got a good look at the man. He was young, although his round face made him look even younger than he was. His eyes were determined though.
"Didn't Tifa say you guys were with Shinra?" Aerith put one hand on his arm reassuringly.
"Tifa already suggested helping evacuate people." Aerith reminded him. "Where is the nearest way out of the sector?"
"Over here!" Wedge called, running into the middle of the crowd. "You guys can't stay here!"
Angeal went to run after him but froze when he realised Genesis wasn't following. The redhead, still wearing his flat cap and dirty jacket, was looking up the pillar with a thoughtful expression on his face.
"Genesis…" Angeal warned.
His friend turned to look at him. "Legend shall speak of sacrifice at world's end." He intoned slowly.
"Don't do what I think you are going to do." Angeal continued, taking a step towards him. Sephiroth had also stopped and was watching them both. Genesis waved a hand at them dismissively.
"I need to see how this act ends. You go rescue the civilians like good little SOLDIERs. I will go play the hero."
With a dash faster than even Angeal could manage, Genesis was at the base of the pillar and starting to climb. A hand settled on Angeal's shoulder.
"Leave him," Sephiroth stated flatly. "We have other considerations."
With one last glance at the pillar and the figure quickly climbing the stairwell, Angeal turned with a huff and stomped over to where Wedge was shouting at a helmeted trooper.
"You have to open the gate! If you don't let these people through-"
"Back off." The trooper stated coldly, throwing the boy back. Wedge fell to the ground, no doubt adding to his existing injuries. Aerith ran to his side in concern.
Angeal shook off Sephiroth's hand and stepped forwards. "That's it." He snarled, having reached his limit of what he could tolerate. "I've had enough."
"It is a Shinra trooper." Sephiroth reminded him calmly.
"I don't care. Shinra are trying to commit mass murder. Where is the honour in being a SOLDIER if I stand back and watch that happen?" He stepped in front of the trooper.
"Open the gate." He instructed firmly.
The trooper leered at him. From his outfit, Angeal could see he was a corporal and probably the commanding officer down here. "Our orders are to keep this gate closed."
Angeal moved right into the trooper's space, grabbing the trooper by his lapels and pulling him so that he had to stare up into Angeal's face. Close enough for Angeal to see his expression underneath the helmet that covered half his face. "I am giving you a new order." Angeal hissed. "Open the gate."
The trooper looked at the mako eyes, the signature of any SOLDIER, and the large broadsword strapped to the man's back. Putting two and two together, the Corporal decided that living today was worth a berating later. SOLDIERs had notoriously short tempers, after all. He took a step back and gulped nervously. "Yes sir. Sorry, sir."
Angeal turned to his partner, to find that the other trooper was already moving the gate out of the way.
"Come on!" Wedge cried behind them, waving to the onlookers. "You have to get out!"
Angeal went back to Sephiroth. "We need to find as many people as we can and evacuate them." Aerith popped up next to him.
"Wedge says the town is this way, I need to get to the bar. Come on." She led them down a corridor flanked by containers and ramshackle homes. As she ran, she called out to the civilians they passed and told them to evacuate. An older woman with a shock of grey hair stopped her.
"Do you know what's going on? What do they want with the pillar?"
It struck Angeal that no one they had met down here thought anyone but Shinra were actually responsible for the fighting going on above them.
He shook his head and paid attention to the woman, who was now barking out directions as well as any army commander. Men scattered to obey her orders.
"What can we do?" Angeal asked again, drawing her attention from where she was about to speak to Aerith. The woman assessed him slowly.
"I don't suppose you and your friend just happen to be concerned citizens?"
"It's ok," Aerith was quick to reassure her. "They want to help."
"Hmph." The woman looked unconvinced, but she wasn't in a position to turn down support. "Well, you can start by going through the sector and sending people to the gates. I assume your friend knows how to use that long sword of his, he can help us clear a path through the tunnel."
"Tunnel?" Sephiroth asked.
"An old maintenance tunnel at the south end of town, leads straight under the wall and into Sector Six. But it runs deep underground and gets a lot of monsters living in it. We need to get it cleared."
"OK," Angeal responded, checking with Sephiroth who gave him a quick nod. The woman walked briskly off, Sephiroth following with the grey cloak billowing every bit as much as his habitual leather coat would.
"Come on," Aerith called, taking off towards the centre of the town. The bar was obvious, a large wooden structure with its name painted in large letters above it. "There it is!" She dashed towards it.
A helicopter passed overhead. Angeal only spared it a passing glance, doing a double take when he realised what he was seeing. A second helicopter, damaged and out of control, was on a collision course with the first. They could do nothing except watch the two hit each other, sending both helicopters crashing to the ground in front of the bar and blocking their route.
"Look out!" Angeal shouted, grabbing Aerith and throwing her backwards away from the downed helicopters that were now on fire. Angeal could only brace himself as he was knocked off his feet by the shockwave of the explosion that followed as the fuel tank detonated.
He scrambled back upright and looked at the burning mass in front of them. "No way through here." Angeal commented with a shake of his head. "Come on." He led her back and through another tight corridor. They found another route, but again falling debris blocked their way. The second helicopter now exploded, sending panicked civilians running towards them and buffeting them both.
A small child was crying amongst the rush of people trying to escape. Unable to keep her feet in the panic, she fell and was almost trampled on. "Oh, you poor thing!" Aerith cried, helping her to her feet. "I know it must hurt, but you've got to be brave now ok?"
Angeal looked around. The grey-haired woman that Sephiroth had left with was standing by a giant pipe in the distance, waving people inside.
"I'll take her over there." He gestured to Aerith, who nodded in agreement. "You head to the bar."
"OK." Aerith took off again, trying to find another route. Angeal dropped down by the girl.
"What's your name?"
"Betty." The girl sniffed. She looked young, probably around five years old.
"OK Betty," Angeal smiled at her. "Let's get out of here." He picked her up easily and made his way to the woman. People pushed past him as they tried to escape, but with his tall and broad frame he remained steady. Eventually he reached the woman and carefully set Betty down.
"Can you take her from here?" He asked the woman, who watched him appraisingly.
"Of course," she replied, looking like she might say more but Angeal turned and ran in the direction Aerith had disappeared in.
He finally found a way through to the bar and was about to walk up the steps to the main entrance, when helicopter searchlights flooded the area. Angeal ducked inside a nearby doorway as the helicopter came down to land directly in front of the bar. Two Shinra troopers jumped out quickly, followed by a man wearing a dark suit. The man looked up at the bar and cast a glance to either side, just enough for Angeal to see his face.
It was Tseng. Angeal didn't know him well, but he was familiar enough with the Turk to recognise him even with several extra years under his belt. But why would a Turk be waiting outside the bar of a sector they were about to destroy?
He had his answer a moment later, when Aerith stepped out of the bar holding the hand of a little girl. The man took a step towards the pair and Aerith froze in her tracks.
"You have led us on a merry chase, Aerith."
"Tseng." Aerith replied, eyes wide. Tseng stepped towards her again and she backed away, shielding the girl behind her. Angeal reached for his sword but Aerith must have seen the movement. Her bright eyes sought him in the shadows, despite the searchlights that must have nearly blinded her. She caught his eye and shook her head minutely, and he reluctantly let go of the hilt at her unspoken request and ducked into the building to watch from the shadows. Tseng paused for a moment and turned his head as though to find what she was looking at, not finding anything of note.
Tseng returned his gaze to the pair in front of him, looking down at the child before lifting his eyes to Aerith. "Before you say another word," he told her quietly. "Know that your options are limited."
Aerith turned to the little girl cowering behind her. "There is nothing to be scared of, ok?" She straightened and smiled at Tseng. "How about we make a deal?"
Tseng stepped aside with a bow and Aerith stepped past him and on to the helicopter, all the while gently holding the girl's hand and murmuring reassuringly to her. As the Shinra craft took off back to the sky, Angeal stepped forwards out of the shadows as both Aerith and her young companion were taken far away from his reach.