Written by Benoit Goudreault-Emond
16. The floating city is sinking
"What the hell is that?" bellowed Cid as he looked up, trying to figure out where the sound was coming from.
"Plate release system alarm," answered Reeve, blanching. "All plates will be released in thirty minutes!"
"What? Who activated this?" demanded Cloud.
"Mr. Evans?" said Katya in a question as she turned to her bodyguard.
The bodyguard was nowhere to be seen.
"I guess that's your answer," Cid pointed out. "If I had that jackass right in front of me, I'd..."
"He got out when Reeve was giving you the numbers on the efficiency of those geothermal doohickies," Reno cut in helpfully.
"Why didn't you say something?" snapped Katya.
Reno shrugged. "Wasn't that part of the plan?"
Reeve frowned. "What plan? Do you mean..."
"No!" protested Katya forcefully.
"Please, Reeve, I want to know what you were going to say," asked Tifa, frowning.
"...you planned to bring all those plates down in the first place?" finished Reeve, his voice quavering on the last few words. "How could you?"
"It was only a contingency plan!" pleaded Katya. "I drafted it, but I never had the intention to..."
"And to think I thought I could thrust you for a few minutes!" hissed Reeve bitterly.
"You can! I..."
"We're wasting time," Cloud cut in. "Katya, you better have a damn good reason for this, but we'll sort this out later. Right now, we have to stop this! How do we do that, Reeve?"
"I hope like hell they haven't changed the layout," muttered Reeve as he took some plans out of his jacket and unfolded them on the floor. Cid, Nanaki, Tifa, Aeris and Cloud gathered around. The others stayed up by some unsaid agreement, keeping a wary eye on the Turks.
"OK, this is the deal," Reeve began. "There are multiple places where one can start the release cycle, but only one of them within headquarters. In all cases, to shut down the cycle, we have to go to the terminal where it was enabled. There's one terminal per sector, plus one in headquarters. All are in very well defended positions, although because of the little power that's available to the city right now, I'm pretty sure most defense systems will be inoperative."
"What do those systems consist of?" asked Cid.
"You must have seen them before," replied Reeve. "Energy guns, force fields, et cetera. Maybe they got beefed up, but I don't know where they'd get power. I don't think they'll be trouble."
"Maybe, maybe not," said Cloud. "It's not really important; we'll deal with those when we get to them. Continue, please."
"Well, I don't think anybody plans to walk all the sectors trying to find which one they used to trigger the cycle," said Reeve. "So we better figure out which one they got into. I'm pretty sure they're in the one to headquarters."
"Why?" asked Cid, frowning.
"Uh, Cid," said Tifa gently, "if you're going to have plates falling down, wouldn't you rather not be standing on any of them?"
Cid turned to her, then closed his eyes in a disgusted expression, feeling pretty stupid.
"They are in headquarters, Reeve," Katya cut in.
Cloud turned to her. "I'm sorry, but your credibility is rather low right now, miss Shinra. Why should we believe you?"
Katya looked hurt, but quickly regained her composure. Then, slowly, icily, she said, "I don't want the citizens of Midgar to die any more than you do, mister ex-terrorist. I don't want to die myself, either."
"Or maybe you just don't want to die yourself," Barret interrupted. "Headquarters is the only safe place, so you want to move there!"
Katya blinked at the verbal jab and looked down. When she looked back up, she stared straight in Cloud's eyes, her gaze intense. "Mr. Wallace is right. It does look like a conflict of interest. Very well. I'll stay here and guard this room. I'll keep two of the Turks with me for protection; you'll need the third to disarm the system." She smiled sadly. "This way, my best interests are definitely for you to succeed," she concluded.
Cloud considered this. He turned to Tifa. She thought about it, then nodded. He turned to Cid, who only shrugged. Finally, he turned to Reeve. The businessman seemed about to say something, but he remained silent and nodded. Cloud sighed, then said, "All right. Which Turk comes with us?"
Elena stepped forward, and, turning to Katya, said, "I'd like to go with them, ma'am, with your permission."
Katya shook her head. "No, Elena. You've shown a surprising lack of control when it comes to those people. I don't want you to compromise the mission."
"Ma'am!" protested Elena, hurt that her professionalism would be questioned.
"Rude will go," decided Katya.
Rude nodded silently and walked to Cloud. Cloud turned to the others. "All right. We'll run for it. Let's just hope that's where Evans is. Let's go."
With that, he ran out of the room. The others followed, Nanaki and Reeve last. But just as Nanaki was about to exit the room, a security door slammed down. Nanaki barely jumped back in time to avoid getting his muzzle smashed. Aeris, who had been right after Nanaki, spun and saw what had happened.
"Hold!" she yelled, her normally soft voice showing surprising strength. The others turned in surprise. Cid cursed, and Cloud ran to the door, Rude following closely.
The blond man turned to the Turk. "How the hell did that happen?"
"Evans must have gained control of the security grid of the sector," he replied, his voice betraying no emotion.
"I'm gonna cut through," said Cloud, his hand reaching to his sword's handle.
Rude's arm shot out to hold Cloud's. The swordsman's head turned to the Turk, eyes filled with cold fury at the liberty the Shinra employee was taking. Rude paid no heed. "Not a good idea," he explained. "Cut through, and one million volts go through you."
"How do I know you're not lying?" snapped Cloud hotly. "How do I know this wasn't part of Katya's plan, so she could get out of there?"
"If this were the case, the door would have closed after both Red XIII and Reeve had passed," Reno replied impassively.
"Unless she wanted hostages---" began Cloud. He was interrupted by a rough curse from Barret and a groan from Tifa.
"Cloud!" called Tifa, her voice strained. Cloud spun and saw that another door had closed, but both she and Barret were holding it up. He ran to the door and gave them a hand, but the metallic wall was extremely heavy. Cid and Rude moved in to help.
"No!" said Cloud in a tone that wouldn't accept any discussion. "Rude, if any must go through, it's you! And Cid, if you hold this up, you'll block the door! Everyone move, quickly!"
The others complied with celerity. When Vincent, the last of the line, came through, Tifa, Cloud and Barret threw themselves to the other side. Barret nearly got his foot crushed by closing door.
"Goddammit," he swore. "I knew I should have taken weight-lifting instead of swimming in high school!"
"Let's hurry," said Rude over his shoulder, as he was already running down the corridor, followed closely by Yuffie. "I don't think there's any other doors around, but I don't know for sure, and time is short."
Cid helped Cloud up, as Aeris was helping Tifa and Vincent was helping Barret, not without difficulty. Barret muttered something about a "damn Turk" the others couldn't make out. Tifa winced as she got up, all her muscles protesting at doing something so soon after so great an effort. Only Cloud seemed to recuperate relatively quickly. Then again, thought Tifa, he only helped us lift the door, it didn't bang down on him...
Tifa thanked Aeris, who simply nodded in response. Then, they all forced themselves to follow Yuffie and Rude down the passage.
As he forced himself to run, Cloud wondered what in the world was happening back in the control room they were leaving behind.
"Can't we open the door somehow?" asked Nanaki.
Reeve just shook his head. Katya looked up from her console and spoke up. "No. He got control of the security system here, and I can't kick him out. I need more time." She then turned back to her screen, leaning to her left to consult with a tech once in a while. Her hands were flying over the keyboard as she was trying to wrest control of the security systems from Evans. Sweat was building on her brow; it looked like it wasn't going well.
Elena had been brooding up to that moment, upset at being stuck there while Rude was having all the fun, in a manner of speaking. But she just couldn't resist that one. She looked up and said, tauntingly, "What's the matter, animal? Don't thrust your friends to shut down the system before we fall all the way down to the slums?"
Nanaki did not reply, but the remark stung Reeve. He turned to the Turk. "No more than you're worried that Rude won't make it there, Elena," he snapped. Then, more softly, he said, "You weren't so bitter in the past, Elena...What happened?"
"As if you cared, traitor," Elena hissed.
Reeve just looked at her sadly for a long time, as Elena held his gaze. Finally, she looked away, unable to stare any longer. The truth was that, of course, Tseng's death had hit her very hard. She had wanted him badly, but he had been killed by Cloud's hand before anything could come out of it. And when he had died, she hadn't felt like she had lost a lover, but rather, a father, and that made her even angrier.
Reno noticed her dark mood and leaned towards her. "What's eating you?" he asked casually.
"Nothing," she replied curtly.
"Oh, no," protested Reno. "Don't give me that. You still miss Tseng, don't you?"
Elena merely turned and glared.
"Not that I'm blaming you," assured Reno. "He was quite a guy. I miss him too. Sometimes, I feel like the heart of the Turks died with him..."
"It did," replied the blonde, her voice breaking. "Mine did, anyhow. Damn Cloud!"
"You still think he did it, don't you?" said a deep voice in front of her. She jumped and glared at the red beast sitting three feet away who had spoken those words.
"Of course, you're going to tell me he didn't," the blonde hissed.
"Not at all," replied Nanaki. "I cannot say that, only because I did not see him kill Tseng, he's not the one responsible. However, I saw Tseng's body. His wound had been made by a sword...A rather narrow one, I might add."
"What's that got to do with---"
"Cloud's sword is rather wide, in case you hadn't noticed," interrupted Nanaki. "There's no way he could have wounded Tseng to the side; the blade would have tore him open."
Elena frowned. "You are saying Cloud didn't---"
"I'm merely stating the facts," replied Nanaki curtly. "You are free to draw any interpretation you wish from them."
"You're just telling me a bunch of lies!"
"Suit yourself," said Nanaki, shrugging. The catlike beast turned with feline dignity and padded back to Reeve.
Elena just stared at him. She jumped when Reno spoke up. "He's right, you know..." her superior said.
"What do you know?" she snapped.
"Remember when we buried him?" asked Reno.
"How could I forget?" Elena shot back.
"Well, if I recall correctly, you were bawling your eyes out, and Rude and I were quite shaken as well," he told her. "But I did notice the wound on Tseng's side. It was too narrow, and I wondered, then forgot about it. But what that beast said makes perfect sense."
"---You're lying!" said Elena, looking hurt.
"Why would I do that?" replied Reno. "And besides, does it matter that much? We did some things that weren't very nice to AVALANCHE, either. But it was part of the game. Of course, having Tseng dead made it personal, but I must admit, in Cloud's place, I might have done the same. And ultimately, Elena, don't forget it's been two years!"
Elena tensed, then realized Reno was right. She relaxed, sighing. She said nothing else for some time. Then, "Well, I suppose..."
"And besides," Reno cut in, with a hint of mischievousness in his voice, "I'm so much cuter than Tseng was!"
Elena drove her elbow in Reno's ribs. She turned to him, her eyes still moist, but a hint of a smile on her lips. "You're such a jerk, Reno!"
"Guilty as charged," the Turk replied, smiling smugly.
Before Elena could say anything else, a man in a Shinra guard uniform ran in the control room from one of the side doors, out of breath. He ran to Katya.
"Miss--the guards under Evans' command--they're coming!" he said breathlessly.
"So far, so good," said Cid.
"Don't let your guard down," warned Cloud. "In fact, be more alert than ever. I don't like this, I don't like it at all."
The other remained silent, but alert. Still, despite Cloud's worries, they made it to the control room without incident. To find themselves in front of one of the now-familiar metallic doors. On both sides of the corridor were windows, through which one could see the top of the Sector 3 plate. They were standing in a service corridor that connected the plate directly to the Shinra headquarters building.
"This one's new," commented Rude about the door. "Of course, you're aware they probably have current running through this one, too."
"I don't get it," cut in Cid, scowling. "Where are they getting power for running so may amps in there? As far as we know, they may have no current running in there at all!"
"Take a look outside," replied Aeris, who was looking intently through one of the windows on the side of the corridor. Cid walked to it, followed by Tifa. Cloud remained in front of the door, fuming. So close, and yet, so far...!
"I don't see nothing," said Barret, looking over Cid's shoulder.
"Right, that explains it," said Cid, ignoring him.
"Explains what?" asked Barret.
Cid turned to him. "There's no lights out there, which means all the power's being driven elsewhere. The security system is a good bet. We'd better not try to cut this door up."
Tifa pointed to somewhere outside. "Doesn't this go in the control room?"
Rude walked to the window and looked at the spot Tifa was pointing to. "It does. The window is rather solid, though."
Cloud, who had been thinking dark thoughts up to then, suddenly snapped out of it. "But does current run through it?" he asked.
"Through glass? Unless they added some kind of grid, and I can't see any, I'm pretty sure that's not really possible," said Rude thoughtfully. "It's about ten centimeters thick, though."
"Well, I can probably cut the whole thing loose from its frame, then!" replied Cloud with enthusiasm. "I'd be surprised if even Shinra thought of running current through that external wall!"
"Actually, they never did, so you could simply cut the wall out--no need to bother with the window," replied Rude, a hint of enthusiasm in his voice as well. "Safer. But how do we reach that thing?"
"Walkway right there," said Barret, pointing to a narrow ledge with rounded edges that was barely six inches wide.
Rude looked at it, and said, "That was never meant to be a ledge. It's just decorative. It's probably pretty slippery, as well."
"We can probably make it," said Tifa. "But we'll have to be extremely careful."
"We don't have much time to be careful," Cloud pointed out. "Anybody have some sort of rope or something?"
"If we had, where the hell would you anchor it?" asked Cid.
Aeris looked down at the orbs she had in her holder as the others looked for alternatives. Then, some random bit of data from a physics class came back to her.
"Cloud? I think I know how we can do this!"
"Are you sure you can do this?"
Aeris looked up in Cloud's worried eyes. She smiled. "Yes," she replied simply, with much more assurance than she felt.
Cloud hesitated for a moment, then took his decision. "Well, we better do it fast, then. All right, who's going to risk it?"
"I'll go," ventured Barret.
Cloud shook his head. "Sorry, Barret, but you're out. You're much too massive for that."
"Then, why did you ask for volunteers, man?" Barret complained.
Cloud rolled his eyes. "OK, fine. We don't have time for this. Yuffie, Tifa, you're the lightest among us, so you're both going. We need someone to cut the wall open; that would be Cid or me. Cid?"
Cid shrugged. "Whatever. Don't care either way."
Cloud nodded. "All right, I'll go. You'll be backup. Let's do it." And with that, without waiting for anything else, he took a metallic object from Cid's hand and strode towards the window. With a single, effortless movement, he opened it, then straddled the windowsill. He snapped the metallic object to the back of his belt. The object was actually a length of copper wire scavenged from circuitry in the nearby wall surrounding a soft iron core and a Materia orb.
Cloud looked outside. Inadvertently, he looked down, and forced himself to look back up immediately. They were thirty stories above the plate's surface. A fall would no doubt be fatal. He steeled himself. "Ready."
Aeris bowed her head and closed her eyes, concentrating. Suddenly, green light flared around her. Cloud could hear the buzz of current going through the copper wire. Bracing himself, he swung his legs out and landed on the thin "walkway". He immediately was pulled to the wall by the magnetic force imbued in the coil. What Aeris was doing was casting "Bolt" from a distance and injecting the current in the coil. The result was a powerful electromagnet that glued Cloud to the wall as long as Aeris kept the spell up. He was soon joined by Yuffie, then by Tifa, both of them held to the wall in the same manner. Carefully picking his steps, Cloud moved to his right, his back sliding across the wall. The wind up there was horrible, chilly, and made the exercise difficult. Worse, as Rude had speculated, the ledge was extremely slippery; the air was clammy, and because of the lack of power, the metal wall was ice-cold. The result was a thin coat of water on surface of the ledge. Despite this, the three made good progress to their destination, a spot a meter from the window Tifa had spotted earlier.
Just as Cloud had reached the spot, however, he heard Yuffie cry out in surprise. Reflexively, he reached out and managed to grab her arm. She had slipped, and was sliding down; the electromagnet could glue her to the wall, but it would not prevent her from sliding downwards under the effects of gravity. Cloud's powerful grip saved her from sinking down altogether; however, it put pressure on his own magnet, and his boots were slipping off the ledge. Tifa was trying to edge closer so she could help, but she was having trouble with her footing as well.
Cloud strained to lift the young Ninja up, but he just didn't have enough leverage. Then, he heard Aeris cry out. Her scream chilled his blood; she was obviously suffering greatly, trying to keep all three of them from tumbling all the way down to the plate.
"She can't take much more of this!" whispered Cloud to himself. Then, louder: "Tifa! Can you grab Yuffie?"
"Almost...there..." replied Tifa as she was doing her best to get closer. She nearly lost her footing twice, but she eventually managed to grab Yuffie's other arm.
"Good," said Cloud curtly. "Now, I'm going to let her go. I'll cut the wall open, get rid of any opposition, and come back as fast as I can. From inside, I'll have the leverage to lift her out."
"Right," replied Tifa, bracing herself.
Cloud released Yuffie, and Tifa had to strain hard to prevent her from tumbling down. But Cloud was already in motion. Sliding the coil along his belt, he managed to move such that his side was pressed on the wall. He unsheathed his sword, and then, in three quick slices, cut open the wall. He launched himself in.
Three guards were waiting for him there, rifles drawn and tracking him. The tallest of the guards yelled "Drop it!" and waved his rifle menacingly.
"You're kidding, right?" replied Cloud calmly. He dodged the salvo the guards shot towards him and, coolly, methodically, he proceeded to take them out. It was over in a mere ten seconds.
Cloud let his sword clatter down on the floor and ran to the opening in the wall. He grabbed Yuffie and pulled her in. She practically fell flat on her face as she stumbled in, but she did not complain. She was very pale.
"You all right?" asked Cloud.
"God, and me who's scared of heights..." was all Yuffie could reply.
Cloud moved to the opening again and offered his hand to Tifa. She took it gratefully. Just as she prepared to step in, the electromagnet suddenly lost all power. She fell with a gasp, but Cloud managed to hold her up, although the effort wrenched his left shoulder severely. Gritting his teeth, the blond man ignored the lancing pain in his shoulder and pulled Tifa in. She managed to come in more gracefully than Yuffie, but she was pale as well.
"What happened?" asked Cloud.
"The magnet gave out all of the sudden... Something must've happened to Aeris!" she explained. And with that, she ran to the massive door and touched the button next to it. The door slid up, to reveal Cid, Barret and Vincent worrying over the young Cetra, who was kneeling on the floor. Rude, who had been standing next to the door, immediately ran to the console inside the control room. Aeris looked up as Tifa came forward, and Tifa thought she saw the Cetra's face register surprise briefly. Tifa frowned at that. What, is she surprised to see me? she wondered. But the surprise was already gone from Aeris' face, replaced by a wan, tired smile. Probably just my imagination, Tifa concluded.
Cloud came up from behind her. "Are you all right?" he asked, concerned.
Aeris turned to him, smiled, and got to her feet slowly. "I'm all right. Sorry I dropped the power at the last minute, but it just got too much for me, and..."
Cloud smiled back. "That's OK, nobody got hurt." He turned to Rude, who was busy with the console. "Is everything all right?"
Rude did not reply immediately; he was punching in a very long passphrase. When he was done, he punched in the abort code, waited to see the result, then sighed, and nodded at himself. He turned to the others. "Midgar is safe," he said evenly. "All bombs have been defused."
This was met by cheers from Barret, Cid, Cloud and Yuffie. Tifa grinned, unable and unwilling to avoid being swept away by the elation of her comrades. She did not notice Aeris who, strangely enough, kept her face expressionless.
That's when all the lights went off at once.
"Are you sure Evans is in there?" asked Katya in a neutral voice.
The guard's uniform was covered with dust. Several cuts could be seen on him, and he had lost his helmet in the battle. Still, his voice was strong when he spoke. "We're positive. We surrounded him in there. He has nowhere to go."
"Very well. Let's pry him out."
The guard looked embarrassed. "Well..."
"You have a problem with that, private?" snapped Katya.
"I would very much like to go in there and nail the bastard, miss Shinra," said the guard softly. "But we don't know where he is in there, and defensively, his position is pretty strong."
"But we just shut down the reactor," protested Reeve. "There's no way he has power for any defenses now!"
"True enough," agreed the guard. "Still, several power packs are missing in the arsenal, and we suspect he's got them with him. We have to be very careful. I'd rather not have you take any risks, miss Shinra."
"The hell with it!" yelled Katya, her temper flaring. Then, at the price of an immense effort to control herself, she managed to bring her voice back to normal. "Let's go in."
"Shouldn't we wait for the others?" asked Nanaki. "Cloud just called, and they've defused the bombs. They'll be here soon."
Katya shook her head. "No. This is my responsibility. For once, I don't want somebody else to do my own dirty work."
"At least, let us come with you," pleaded Reeve.
Katya considered this, then nodded. "All right. But I want to handle Evans myself."
"Deal," replied Reeve.
Katya turned to the guard closest to the door--a thirtyish woman with slender, wiry muscles--and nodded. The guard turned to the door and reached removed a panel from the wall to its right, revealing a cavity full of wires. She plunged her hands inside, twisted some wires, and the door slid up ponderously.
"Move out!" commanded the highest ranking guard.
The guards formed a protective ring around Katya, and they moved inside the room. It was pitch black, the only light coming from the open door. The room was filled with crates of different kinds, some of them containing explosives. Reeve strained to see inside, and thought he saw something move. He screamed a warning, but it was too late; a sharp crack retorted from somewhere to Reeve's left. He reacted instantly, turning his weapon in the general direction of the sniper, and firing several shots. Every single one of them missed. However, as soon as Reeve stopped shooting, Nanaki leaped on top of some crates. A roar was heard, then a human scream, and Nanaki emerged from behind the crates, his fangs dripping blood on the floor.
"I have dispatched the sniper," he said, his voice calm.
Reeve was not listening, however. He had turned and saw, horrified, that Katya was lying on her back. She had been shot. The bullet had gone right through her side to fragment inside her torso, damaging several major organs. She was dying. A pool of blood was forming on her left, a big red stain growing on her otherwise immaculate suit.
Seeing this, something snapped in Reeve. He ran forward with only one thought in mind: to kill Evans. Several snipers took shots at him; every time, through sheer luck or because it was dark and he was moving quickly, they missed, and he managed to shoot them down. He eventually reached a closed door in the back of the room. He rammed it; it gave in, opening wide and smashing into the wall. The open door revealed a very small room with bare walls, and a computer console and a chair as its only furniture. And behind the console was sitting a single man.
Predictably enough, it was Evans. The man who had been Katya Shinra's right hand in her ascension to power and who, ultimately, had betrayed her. He looked up from his console and favored Reeve with an evil smile.
"Ah," said Evans, "the cream puff!"
Reeve raised his pistol, but resisted the urge to pull the trigger. There was one thing he wanted to know first. "Why?" he hissed, all of his contempt and hatred for the man easily discernible.
Evans shrugged. "I did what she ordered me to do, to the letter. As for shooting her, well, part of her orders were to take control of Shinra if anything happened. Something happened. I suppose she couldn't take the strain of power. Imagine! Allying herself with terrorists! In any case, I was, at that moment, the president of Shinra, and she was a danger to the company's future." He said all this in a passionless, almost conversational voice, as if he were speaking of the weather or of the latest football scores.
Reeve had a hard time believing he had just heard that. "What are you talking about? She was going to make Shinra richer than it ever was! She was going to turn it into an instrument for peace! You had no right!" Again, Reeve nearly lost control of his trigger finger.
Evans smiled. " `That's your perspective,' to coin the late miss Shinra's expression. Mine is, you are outlaws. You've won, but I made sure it was not without a high price."
Reeve pressed his lips together, hard. His arm had been lowering unconsciously as he was talking; presently, he raised it and aimed at Evans' forehead.
Evans laughed at this. "Right, you're going to shoot me, now! You, who swore you'd never harm anybody! You, who always wanted to find a peaceful solution to every problem! Hah! You're not going to throw away all your years of pacifism in a single instant!"
Reeve was taken aback, but recovered. "I shot the guards outside," he remarked, his voice slightly hesitant.
"Self defense," sneered Evans. "Shooting me would be cold-blooded murder, and you're too much of a cream puff to do this. Now, just stick me in prison, and let's get it over with!"
Reeve lowered his weapon for a moment and looked down. He had sworn that he would not harm any human being in cold blood a long time ago. He was trying desperately to find the strength to override his earlier vow, but to no avail.
Evans laughed.
Again, something snapped in Reeve. He raised his gun and fired. The bullet flew to Evans and entered his head right between his eyes. Evans died immediately, his face frozen for eternity in an expression of surprise. Feeling nothing, Reeve looked at Evans' lifeless body, slumped on his chair, for a short time. Then, setting his jaw, his eyes filled with tears, his mind full of guilt, he ran back out.
He found his way back to Katya and her guards pretty quickly. Katya was still alive, but barely, and she was going fast, despite Nanaki's best efforts with his Restore Materia. The guards parted to let Reeve through. The businessman kneeled next to the dying woman. Katya opened her eyes and smiled weakly. Reeve took her hand and squeezed it.
"Evans is dead," he said, his voice breaking. "I...shot him."
"See," whispered Katya. "I told you you weren't a cream puff!"
Reeve looked down. "I'm sorry...I should have seen this coming, try to prevent it..."
Katya coughed, then shook her head weakly. "No, Reeve. I didn't see it. I can't expect you to have seen it when I didn't."
Tears formed in Reeve's eyes. He let them fall, not caring if people saw him cry. "Please don't die," he whispered. "There's so much we could have done together..."
Katya sighed, which made her cough again. Then: "There's no way I can avoid death, now. I guess I sinned, and I'm being punished for it. Reeve..."
"Yes?"
"There's something I want you to do..." Katya whispered.
"Anything..." Reeve whispered back.
"I'm leaving Shinra in your hands. Please...don't let the company die because of my sins..." she pleaded.
"But..." replied Reeve, hesitating.
Katya coughed several times. Blood was trickling down her mouth. "Please, Reeve...I'm begging you..."
"...All right," he finally said.
Katya smiled, coughed, then closed her eyes. Her hand was still gripping Reeve's, but her strength was going.
That's when Cloud's team entered the room. Reeve's head snapped up. "Aeris! Over here! She's dying!" he called.
Aeris ran to Katya's side, knelt, facing Reeve, and closed her eyes. After a moment, she shook her head. "I'm sorry, Reeve...I can't bring her back," she whispered, voice filled with sadness.
Katya coughed one more time, then her grip on Reeve's hand went limp and her eyes rolled back.
She was dead.
Reeve closed her eyes tenderly, almost lovingly. "Good-bye, Katya," he whispered. He stood, all energy drained from his body, and saw that he was not the only one whose eyes were filled with tears.
Tifa walked to him and put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry, Reeve," were the only words she found.
"Yeah," was the only thing Reeve could reply.
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Benoit Goudreault-Emond April, 9 2001