The Future Imperfect
AN – Well, I did promise a quick update! This story is rolling along quickly, not too many chapters left of this one but it will be the first instalment in a series. The last chapter was quite short so I wanted to get this one out quickly. Enjoy!
Chapter Fourteen
Cloud stood outside of the men's bathroom on the sixty fourth floor. Tifa shuffled next to him. "I'll wait out here." She said uneasily.
Cloud looked around at the sleek décor on the floor. Tifa couldn't loiter here, it would be far too obvious that she didn't belong. Plus, they were just tucked down the side of the main conference room. It was a dangerous place to be hanging around.
"You can't wait out here." Barret said incredulously, echoing Cloud's thoughts. Tifa rubbed her arms nervously.
"Never fear, we will guard the entrance and ensure that no one else enters the bathroom." Genesis told her dramatically, waving his rifle around. He gestured to Sephiroth and the two of them walked back down the large lobby towards the entrance of the conference room, taking up positions resting against a marble pillar where they could see both the conference doors and the corridor that led to the bathroom. They fell into a relaxed guard pose, looking like any of the other guards they had passed if you could ignore their custom swords hanging behind them.
"Oh, never mind. You're right." Tifa sidled in after Cloud, breathing a sigh of relief. "Oh, thank god. No one's in here."
Barret followed next, grumbling about how upmarket the facilities were, all gleaming surfaces and polished chrome. A far cry from the standards seen below plate, further highlighting just how wide the gulf was between those in power and the normal people they were supposed to serve.
Cloud walked down the row of toilets until he saw an obvious ventilation shaft in the ceiling. "Gotcha." He was almost dumbfounded by how obvious this breach in security was as he stepped up on top of the toilet to carefully remove the cover and set it down inside the stall.
Barret looked up at the gap in the ceiling. It wasn't particularly small, but in no way large enough for someone of Barret's stature. "Uh…I'm…"
"On guard duty." Cloud raised an eyebrow, daring him to challenge. But he wouldn't, not when he could barely fit his head through the vent. Angeal hummed thoughtfully.
"I think I'm going to wait outside. I'm not going to fit in there either." He slipped back out the door, leaving the Avalanche members alone. Barret heaved a deep breath.
"I know they're not all that bad, but them SOLDIER boys still give me the heebies. No offense, Cloud."
Cloud shook his head with a small smile. "Time to go find out what's going on in the boardroom. Hopefully Hojo will be in there. Coming, Tifa?"
"Yes, I don't want to be in here any longer than I have to."
Cloud leapt up, pulling himself into the vents. Once inside, he could commando crawl forwards easily enough but the sword on his back was a hindrance. In hindsight, he wished he had left it with Barret in the restroom.
As they crawled through the vents, they passed other small conference rooms where small groups were huddled and working hard. Cloud skipped straight over those, they weren't of any importance to him. But eventually, the grating beneath him showed a large table in a dark wood with gold inlays. President Shinra was almost directly underneath the grating, the table stretching up ahead of him. A blonde woman that Cloud recognised from the displays below as Scarlet was sat to his left. A fuzzy memory he dredged up from somewhere in his past saw her striding down a corridor wearing a similar red dress to the one she was currently wearing, and whispered warnings amongst the infantry to stay away from her. To the President's right sat a rotund man wearing a beige suit – Palmer, head of the Space and Aeronautics Division.
"I'm telling you, I saw him!" Palmer was saying loudly. "With my own eyes. Sauntering down the corridor."
Heidegger, a large man wearing a green jacket who was sitting next to Palmer threw up his hand at the edge of Cloud's field of view. "We don't have time for this nonsense." He growled out in a gruff voice.
Palmer stood up and strode across the room behind Heidegger and out of view. "He was as close to me as you are now. The shock of it made me spill my tea!" His voice, nasally and high pitched, carried clearly for Cloud to hear despite being out of sight.
"Enough already!" Heidegger slammed a hand on a table and stood menacingly. "If there are intruders in the building my men will deal with them!"
Cloud shot a worried glance over his shoulder at Tifa. Had they been detected after all? But none of them had been anywhere near Palmer, so it couldn't be them the director saw. Who else was stalking the corridors of the Shinra building? Tifa shrugged slightly, squeezing up alongside Cloud to peer down into the room.
"Sir, I have the damage assessment for Sector Seven and I fear the figures are catastrophic." A man in a blue suit was saying.
"Spare us the doom and gloom." The President replied dismissively, effectively cutting the man off. Tifa gasped from her position next to Cloud. He nudged her gently and shook his head, reminding her that they needed to keep silent if they were going to remain undetected. "Anything else?"
"Well sir, I've also drafted a reconstruction plan."
"That will not be needed. Not with the Ancient in our custody once more." Cloud and Tifa leant forwards at hearing the allusion to Aerith.
"With respect sir, I don't see how-"
"Two words, Reeve." Scarlet cut him off abruptly. "Neo Midgar."
'Neo Midgar?' Tifa mouthed silently to him. Cloud frowned in thought. Was that what the strange video they had seen earlier was trying to show them? Something about the Ancients leading them to a paradise rich in mako? But if Shinra ever found it… he didn't want to think about what they would do to it.
"Professor Hojo." President Shinra said now, gesturing down the table. Cloud couldn't see Hojo, but a shudder ran through him at the sound of the distinctive voice.
"The test results were within expectations. The specimen is somewhat lacking compared to her pure blood mother, but for our purposes she should more than suffice."
"So she can lead us to the Promised Land?"
"Well, Mr President, that remains to be seen. I would like your permission to secure her cooperation through more… forceful means. Forceful, yet gentle. She is a precious resource that must be handled with care."
Tifa's knuckles grew white as she clenched her hands tightly against the vent surface. Cloud gently placed one of his own hands on hers and squeezed it. He breathed deeply, trying not to let the Professor's words affect him. Every time Hojo spoke, Cloud's vision went green and a remembered pain caused his muscles to twitch.
"Personally, I've never had a problem with torture." Scarlet told Hojo, smiling viciously.
"My armoury is at your disposal, should you require it." Heidegger added, clasping his hands together as he leaned forwards on the table. Tifa looked horrified at the scene playing out below. Even Palmer was grinning and rubbing his hands together. Only the man in the blue suit, Reeve, showed any sign of discomfort at the debate around him.
"I had something more psychological in mind." Hojo's voice continued. "Better to scar the psyche than mar the flesh."
"Proceed as you see fit." President Shinra said, after taking a deep draught of the cigar he was holding and expelling a large cloud of smoke. "However, you will not make the same mistake twice. Is that clear?"
"If I may, Mr President," Hojo continued on. "I have an idea of how we might mitigate the risks. Simply put, we could have the Ancient reproduce. In the absence of a second specimen, we would need to identify an alternative mate. I would start with candidates from SOLDIER. These would of course include S and G types. Quite frankly, there is no telling what kind of properties a cross bred specimen might possess!"
Cloud drew back. S and G type SOLDIERs? He had never heard of such a thing. Except… a fuzzy memory intruded into his mind. A large, metal room containing mako tubes. A discussion, about a doctor… Holland? Harvard? A man in a lab coat, a flash of red, a black wing stretching up to the ceiling. Disconnected images and words flickered through his mind, before one phrase finally stood out clearly.
'Project G gave birth to the man we know as Genesis.'
"Cloud?" Tifa whispered to him, breaking him out of the memory. "We need to go." Looking through the vent, Cloud could see that the directors had all left the room, Hojo trailing them out. They made their way back through the vents and dropped down into the bathroom below. The first thing Tifa did was run into the next cubicle to throw up.
"Tifa! You alright?" Barret asked, watching on with an alarmed expression. "What did they do to you?"
Tifa wiped her hand across her mouth and shook her head. "The things they were saying… what they plan to do to Aerith… we have to get her. Now."
Cloud opened the door of the bathroom to find Angeal lounging against the wall opposite. The SOLDIER's expression was grim beneath the helmet.
"We have a problem."
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
Angeal leant against the wall, hands resting on his hips as he watched the door opposite. Crisp footsteps alerted him to the approach of a man in a suit. He stepped forwards, blocking the way to the bathroom. "These are out of order."
The man threw up his hands in irritation. "Oh this is just great! Do you even know who I am? I'm the Head of Interdepartmental Unification Planning and I have an important meeting on crisis response in just a couple of minutes. I don't have time to find another bathroom!"
Angeal remained impassive, trying to ignore how much he just wanted to hit the man. "I'm sorry sir, but a fault was reported earlier and maintenance are on their way."
"And why do they even have a SOLDIER here to tell me? Aren't you supposed to be guarding something?" The man stalked off, complaining loudly. Angeal let out a deep sigh and tried to ignore the snickering coming from Genesis. Curse his enhanced hearing that meant he couldn't even feign blissful ignorance.
He took up his position opposite the bathroom again, waiting for one of the others to emerge. A few minutes later, he heard the doors to the main conference room open. Being down a side corridor, he couldn't see the doors themselves but could just about see the backs of the directors as they exited. First out was Reeve Tuesti, hurrying away and disappearing into a side conference room. Scarlet followed him, her red dress swaying as she stalked straight towards the elevators on the far side of the building. Heidegger's huge bulk came next, his long green military coat covering his broad frame. Angeal could only watch with horror as he approached Genesis and Sephiroth and barked at them.
"You! And you! Come with me!"
Belatedly, Genesis and Sephiroth snapped sloppy salutes, trying not to draw attention to their very obviously not regulation blades. But Heidegger was already marching away and they had no choice but to follow. Genesis chanced a worried glance back at Angeal but almost immediately had to switch his attention back to Heidegger, who was growling out something Angeal didn't catch.
When Cloud finally did emerge from the bathroom, Tifa and Barret following closely, Angeal's first words were "We have a problem."
Cloud listened to Angeal's quick recap of the story before flicking worried eyes to Tifa and Barret. "We need to keep going to make sure we don't lose Hojo. We'll have to find the others later."
Angeal looked back at the door to the hallway, seeing it slide shut behind a man wearing a white coat.
"There he goes." Tifa noted as they ran after him. Once in the hall, Hojo was disappearing into another door to the side of the escalators. Moving quietly, the group tailgated him in, just squeezing through the before the door shut behind them. Tifa blew out a breath of relief.
"Now what?" Barret asked, Hojo nowhere in sight. Cloud frowned but led the way through the facility, all gleaming steel walls and ominous looking tanks. There were no people around at all, likely due to the fact it was now in the small hours of the morning.
Moving into a larger room, Hojo could be heard muttering to himself ahead of them. Barret ran up behind him, pressing his gun arm into the scientist's back.
"Don't move! I ain't bluffing."
"What is this?" Hojo asked derisively. He was of average height, with lank hair tied back in a loose ponytail and dark glasses hiding his eyes from view. He also stank of stale body odour, which made him extremely unpleasant to be this close to if you had an enhanced sense of smell like Angeal did.
"A dozen bullets in your head unless you open that door right now." Barret growled out, tone low.
Hojo sneered but opened the door so they could all file through. As they did so, Angeal could see a couple of distant lab technicians that gasped and backed away out of the room.
"You must be the ones who have been stirring up trouble lately, the ecoterrorists?"
Barret grunted, telling Hojo to move on with a sharp movement of his head. They descended a short flight of metal stairs onto a floor surrounded by large mako tanks. Angeal shuddered. He had been in the labs before, but they had never looked quite like this.
"If so, I can't imagine what business you have with me. The President's upstairs."
"Shut up, keep walking." Barret growled again, shoving the professor with his gun. Angeal frowned as he looked around at the room. Something didn't feel right. He looked around, seeing large shapes hidden within the mako tubes but unable to make out any details of what they were.
"Tell us where Aerith is!" Barret shouted, drawing Angeal's attention back to Hojo.
"Oh, so she's your friend." Hojo replied, rubbing his chin with one hand thoughtfully. "Well, well, well. In that case… yes, that might do the trick…"
"He's up to something." Angeal said softly to Cloud, who nodded curtly and unholstered his sword. Hojo's eyes flickered to the blond.
"Just imagine how she might react if I present to her your fresh corpses." Hojo said with a smirk, just as large, one eyed bug-like monsters started dropping from the ceiling and scuttling towards them. Tifa kicked the one closest to her out of the way while Barret fired on a second, neither able to stop Hojo as he darted towards a terminal and hit a couple of buttons.
"I promise, you will regret this." He said with a leering smile as he left the room. Angeal and Cloud turned their attention to the large mako tank next to the terminal, that was opening up to reveal a huge monster, covered in scales and tentacles and Gaia only knew what else.
"What is that?" Tifa gasped, horrified.
"One of Hojo's creations." Cloud replied soberly, before running in and swinging his sword. Angeal pulled out the SOLDIER sword he was carrying, backing Cloud up from the other side of the monster while Tifa darted in and Barret laid down covering fire.
Even with all four of them, it took much longer than Angeal had hoped to take the monster down. Firstly, it managed to spew poison everywhere which made them all unwell and weakened them, and then on top of that it kept sucking more mako out of tanks to heal itself with. Eventually they succeeded though, taking a moment to catch their breath as it dissolved into the bright green of the lifestream.
"Here," Cloud tossed an antidote Angeal's way and he took it gratefully, immediately feeling better.
"Hey, Hojo's getting away!" Barret stomped towards an elevator tucked discretely into the corner of the laboratory floor, Tifa also rushing past to follow him. With a quick look back at Angeal, Cloud called the elevator. A metal grill slid aside to allow them access before it rose deeper into the lab.
As soon as the elevator grill opened, Cloud ran out. On the opposite side of the room a figure wearing a distinctive pink dress stood inside a cylindrical glass containment cell. Angeal stepped up alongside Cloud who had stopped in the centre of the room, eyeing the troops that blocked their way to the cell.
"Aerith!" Cloud called, pulling his sword out. She stepped towards them, but froze as a cackle came over a Tannoy system. They spun around to see Hojo watching them through a window from an observation room above.
"Very impressive. But the results provided by my predictive models indicate that this force should be more than capable of handling you."
"We're taking Aerith back." Cloud called up to him, eyes narrowed.
"Oh, take her back you say. Correct me if I am wrong, but did the girl not come here of her own free will? Or do you mean to tell me that she is your personal property?"
"She only came here to save Marlene!" Barret bellowed.
Hojo waved at the guards in front of them, who released the safety catches on their weapon. Angeal drew his sword again, though as Cloud strode forwards to engage he caught Angeal's eyes and flicked his head at the SOLDIER. Immediately grasping his request, Angeal skirting around the fight to reach Aerith's cell. With a quick movement, he swung at the mechanism locking the door. Electricity cracked as the lock shorted, causing the cell to open.
Aerith stepped out, nearly tripping at the drop until Angeal steadied her. "You guys came!" She exclaimed, smiling up at him. They moved forwards to stand alongside the other three, who were staring up at Hojo having made short work of the force opposing them.
"Looks like ya models got it wrong!"
"Yes, well, an unknown variant perhaps. But no matter, reinforcements will soon arrive."
"But will they get here in time to save you from me." Cloud glared up at the scientist. Angeal gave the blond a quick glance, as he had never seen the other man look so intense as he did glaring at the scientist.
Hojo peered closer at Cloud. "My, are you a SOLDIER?"
Cloud frowned. "…yeah." He stated eventually.
"No… not quite." Hojo suddenly turned gleeful. "Oh now I recall. My memory was mistaken. My boy, you weren't a SOLDIER. But look how far you have come! And this must be your little friend." Hojo grinned at Angeal this time, who had to stop himself visibly shuddering under the manic gaze. "Oh, look at you now, my beautiful failures…"
A host of the ghost-like creatures wearing tattered grey cloaks rose up behind them and swept forwards, carrying Hojo with them. His voice could be heard disappearing down the corridor behind the observation room.
"What are those things up to this time?!" Barret shouted, taking a couple of steps forward.
Tifa approached both Angeal and Aerith. "Are you ok?" She asked softly. Aerith nodded in reply, smiling at her and clasping her hands. They turned to move up to the observation room Hojo had been in, when a large russet-coloured creature leapt over their heads and landed on all fours in front of them. Angeal drew his sword, staring at the animal. It looked like a cross between a dog and a lion, orange red fur covered in intricate tattoos and its mane braided into two long tassels that hung behind its ears. Its single yellow eye glared at them as it drew its lips back in a snarl, before dismissing them and leaping in the direction Hojo had gone. It shattered the glass of the observation window as it powered through it in one bound.
"The hell was that thing?"
"We need to go." Aerith stated, running up the stairs to enter the observation level, following the path the creature had taken.
Angeal and Cloud exchanged a worried glance before running after her.
Aerith was standing still and watching the creature stalk towards her. It was still snarling, Hojo nowhere in sight.
"What, you want a go?" Barret raised his gun arm and Angeal readied his sword. But Aerith put her hand out, not taking her eyes off of the creature.
"Stop. This child's a friend."
She slowly approached, the creature hunkering down and snarling even more. Its tail waved behind it as a warning, and Angeal noticed that it almost looked as though the tip was on fire. Aerith reached down to touch it, causing them all to take a step forwards with concern, but it didn't move away or attack her.
Instead, after a few seconds the anger slowly drained from its eyes. It sat back on its haunches, and looked around at each of them in turn. If it had been human, Angeal would have said its expression was one of mild confusion.
"So… what the hell is it?" Barret asked. Angeal couldn't help but admire the man's directness. Nothing could have prepared Angeal for what happened next though. The creature licked his lips, took a step forwards, and opened its mouth.
"A fascinating question." It stated in a low, calm voice. Tifa gasped and Cloud shuffled in surprise. Angeal felt his jaw drop.
"Did it just talk?!" Tifa cried, taking a few steps back in alarm.
"You asked what it is," the creature continued, walking towards them until it reached Aerith, where it sat next to her. "I am what you see before you. Nothing more. I'd appreciate it if we simply left it at that. Agreed?"
"Of course." Angeal said when it was clear that everyone else was still too surprised to speak, managing to keep his voice a lot calmer than he felt. The creature inclined his head towards Angeal, before turning to the side. Angeal looked closely at the tattoo on his left shoulder, a pattern that wrapped around his forelimb with a number in numerals inked above.
"Thirteen?" Tifa asked, having seen the same tattoo.
"Red thirteen. The designation given to me by Hojo."
"Then, you must have another name." Tifa replied. "What is it?" Red looked at her, slowly blinking and declining to respond before turning to look back at the direction Hojo had gone in.
"He got away." Cloud was focussed on a metal tube at the end of the corridor, which looked to Angeal like it was an elevator.
"So, we gonna go get the son of a bitch?"
Cloud didn't respond to Barret, but started staggering unevenly down the corridor. "Cloud?" Angeal asked in concern for the blond, but got no reply. Cloud's right hand reached up to his temple as he continued to weave his way unsteadily down the corridor. Aerith went to run to him, but Angeal held a hand out. He met her gaze and gave her a slight nod, before approaching Cloud himself. The other man had nearly reached the elevator, but his progress was slowing. He reached one hand forwards to touch the elevator shaft, bracing himself against it as his breathing laboured.
"Cloud?" Angeal asked softly as he approached. Cloud's eyes rose to look at him, but without seeing him. They were glassy and dull, almost as though he was under the influence of something. Slowly his mouth opened and he gasped out one word.
"Moth…er."
Then his eyes rolled into his head and he pitched forwards into Angeal's waiting arms.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
Tseng sat at his desk, in their office of the General Affairs Division's Auditing Department – the public front of the Turks. His pen was held firmly in his right hand as he read through the document in front of him before adding his signature to the bottom. On a sofa to his right, a redhead moved slightly and groaned loudly. Tseng looked over at the figure lying sloppily on his back, legs kicked up on the sofa seat as he faced the ceiling.
"You know, Reno, I think you might be due for some R&R."
Reno barely flicked his eyes at his superior before looking back at the ceiling. "Nah, I'm good."
Rude, Reno's partner and a tall man with a bald head and sunglasses in place, was sitting at the table in the centre of the room. As silence fell again, he tapped his fingers against the tabletop. "What are we going to do about Sector Seven?"
Tseng stopped writing and put his pen on his desk carefully. "'We' are going to do nothing."
Rude frowned deeply. "Been thinking. Was all that necessary?"
"Had we refused, someone else would have completed the task. We have spared that someone the burden of a guilty conscience. Perhaps that will ease yours."
"Yeah… nope." Reno replied, arms crossed underneath his head as he continued to stare at the ceiling.
Tseng looked at both of them. "Let's try another tack then. They were a sacrifice to balance the scales."
"Say what?" Reno asked, rolling onto his side to look at his boss. Tseng returned to his paperwork.
"After everything we've taken from the planet, we were due to give something back."
"Do you actually believe that?" Rude asked him sceptically.
"Does it matter?"
Silence fell in the office as Tseng returned to his papers, Rude glowering at the table in front of him.
"What I want to know," Reno said suddenly, swinging his legs down and into a sitting position. He leant forwards with his arms resting on his knees. His shirt gaped open where it wasn't fastened, revealing a bandage wrapped around his torso that matched the plaster on his cheek in place to cover up his stitches. "Is what was a freaking Genesis copy doing on top of that pillar?"
Tseng paused as he was about to sign the next document, pen hovering in mid-air. "That is… alarming. You are certain of what you saw?"
"Of course I am. He did everything short of quoting Loveless at me. Even berated me on how I treat women." Reno scowled as though personally offended. Tseng looked thoughtful as he considered Reno's words.
"To my knowledge, the process that Genesis and Hollander used to create the copies merely transferred some of Genesis's physical traits. None of the copies encountered in the past have ever been noted as being able to speak. I infer that either you met the real thing, or an Avalanche member that has taken their admiration of him a little too far."
"I dunno, he felt like the real thing. Even threw fireballs."
"Nonetheless," Tseng stated as he signed yet another piece of paper. "I find it more likely that a fan would try to emulate their idol than that the man who once led an army of his own copies against Midgar would now be actively trying to save it." Tseng paused again. "That, and Genesis is widely believed to be deceased, thus also removing the possibility of any new copies being created."
"'Widely believed' don't exactly fill me with confidence, boss," Reno muttered.
The phone on Tseng's desk rang loudly. Tseng held a hand up to stop Reno talking as he picked it up. "Yes? Understood." Tseng placed the phone down and looked at both Rude and Reno. "That's enough for now. The VP needs us."