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Incident:
n657.87
Name:
Midgar Sector 6 Plate Collapse
Notes: Minimal
casualties, during construction of Sector six construction flaws in the central
pillar caused the whole sector to collapse. Sector six construction has been
terminated since.
1. Sorrow May Be Followed Closely By Anger
Cloud picked himself up off the ground,
wiping down his overcoat before continuing to pick up the Executioner
from where he had dropped it on the ground. He instantly realised that he was
in Sector six, in the old derelict playground. He sheathed his blade and went
over to Jessie helping her up. "You okay?" He asked her as she turned
to the pillar in mild shock.
"Have… Have they… Have they gone?"
She asked think of Biggs and Wedge.
"I know Wedge has passed on. He died
after falling from the pillar as for Biggs…" He didn't have to finish that
as Barret moved up to the sector gates.
"The b~#%&^ds… The sons of b#~*%$s!
Biggs… Wedge… They're gone. Marlene!" With that Barret started back into
the sector.
"Barret! No!" Tifa shouted, but he
didn't stop. "Cloud we have to do something!"
She was right, if Aeris had been taken then
what had she meant by she was safe? "Come on." They all followed
Barret back into the Sector, back into the 'Seventh Heaven'. Barret was on his
knees, sobbing, something Cloud never thought he would ever see. The Bar had
been ransacked smashed glass and broken chairs everywhere, the pinball machine
on the other side of the room from its usual position and the elevator into the
hideout.
"I'm going down there to get some of my
things." Jessie stated as she jumped down into the hideout. It was then
Barret found his voice.
"MARLENE!" He cried hitting the
wooden floor with his hands. "Damn Shinra, they were prepared to destroy a
sector just to get at us. I'll kill every last one of them, I'm not giving
up!"
"This has gotten way out of
proportion." Tifa stated. "If we carry on… We'll only endanger more
people. Maybe we shouldn't do this anymore." Was this the Tifa he had
grown up with? She had always been cocky and confidant, never a quitter like
now.
"How do you feel 'Spike'?"
Cloud heard the comment but never answered.
They had all forgot one person. Aeris. He thought back to the playground, the
place he and Aeris had stopped in to talk earlier about Nibelheim and what they
where going to do. He had made a promise to her mother to look after the Flower
Girl and hadn't been there for her.
'Everything Shinra touches
becomes destroyed.'
He knew what he had to do, he felt so
strongly about doing it too. She had saved his life by caring for him when he
fell through the roof of that church, he refused to let hers rot away in some
sort of cell. But why did Shinra want her in the first place? And where was
Marlene?
'Cloud everything alright
honey?'
'They're after me again mom,
they keep calling me a freak.'
'Well ignore them honey and
sit with me. It's safe here.'
Of course.
Why hadn't he realised this before, there was
only one place she would have thought safe.
Home.
As for the other question he knew only one
person could answer that for him.
"Spike?" Barret watched him walk out
the building heading back the way they had come. "What's up with
'im?"
"Aeris?" Jessie asked Tifa as she
reappeared with a bunch of technical equipment.
"I'm not sure but I know Aeris told me,
Marlene was safe. Maybe Cloud knows where she is." She explained.
Barret stood up and headed for the door.
"Tif' there's one thing I have to say to you. We've started it now and we
have to finish it. There's no getting off this train." With that Tifa and
Jessie watched him run after Cloud.
"Come on Tif', we don't have an
option." With that Jessie also left the broken down bar. Looking back at
her bar once more, she knew they where right. She ran after the three other
rebels trying hard not to look back.
2. Someone You
Never Wanted To See Again
Tseng led her through the hallways of Shinra
HQ to the Glass Elevator, her hand secured behind her back and her armour and
weapon taken from her, as was the Materia inside. She turned to he captor as
they entered the left. "I'm glad you kept you're word." She said talking
about Marlene.
"I may have to do some dirty work Aeris
but I'll always stick to my word." He replied as the lift started climbing
upwards.
"You're going to hand me back to him,
aren't you?" She asked.
"I'm afraid so." He said no more.
She looked up at the level indicator wondering about how Cloud was doing, had
he managed to escape alright? However she didn't allow herself to stay on it
for long as she was led past the board room to the steps where Hojo was
waiting. "Here she is professor, she was carrying these." He handed
him her Staff and Armour. He examined them closely before passing them to his
assistant.
"Nice to see you again Ancient." He
greeted her finally.
"My name is Aeris, not Ancient." He
replied dryly.
"I can tell you've met Strife." He
didn't continue instead he led her up the stairs, on thought in her mind. 'Will
I ever see Cloud again."
3. Knowledge Is Power
He entered the house to see Aeris mother
looking out the window. "This is about Aeris, isn't it?" She asked.
"Yes… I'm afraid the Shinra have
her." Cloud confirmed.
"I know, they took her from here."
He replied.
"Why do the Shinra what Aeris?"
"Aeris is an Ancient, one of the last of
her kind."
Cloud realised that this was all this was
about Shinra's need for the Promised Land.
"Hold on." Jessie asked.
"Aren't you her mother?"
"Step-mother it all happened when I was
waiting for my husband to come home, his leave was delayed so I went to the
train station every day…"
/I heard her the moment I
entered the station./
'Mommy! Mommy get up!'
/I ran up to them looking at
the platform attendant in disgust for his inability to help them. Aeris was
there, crying over her fallen mother./
'Oh gosh, can you stand'
/I kneeled down beside her,
I wished I had brought my Materia bangle but it wasn't to be./
'Please… Take Aeris somewhere
safe.'
/Those where her last words
as she slipped away, but Aeris refused to believe so./
'Mommy wake up! Please wake
up!'
/It was then she realised
and turned to me. I took the crying child into my arms as she mourned over her fallen
mother./
"I had no children of my own so I took
her home with me, she told me all about what had happened, how they were
trapped in some sort of research facility and they had hurt her mother when
they had escaped. She also told me about how he mother had 'returned to the
planet'."
Cloud turned towards Jessie before saying.
"The Lifestream."
"You mean Mako?"
He nodded to her before signalling for Elmyra
to continue, she told him all about how the Turks came for Aeris and when after
she refused to let her go they kept trying to get her back into a lab. "It
was Aeris' wish never to go back there so I could never force her."
"I know Aeris usually can get away from
them, especially since they can't harm her. Why now?"
"She had a small girl with her and they
were blocked in. She agreed to go with them in return for the girl's
life." She explained.
"What!" Barret moved forward.
"Marlene is my daughter. I'm sorry about what happened to Aeris."
Barret bowed him head in slight shame.
"You!" Elmyra shouter in disgust.
"I can't believe you could leave such a wonderful young girl alone like
that!"
Barret back-pedalled unsure how to react to
this little attack on his ethics before speaking. "Listen, I wanna spend
all my time with that little girl up there but if I don't do what I do she has
nothing to look forward ta, but I think of
'er all the time I'm out there."
Elmyra held up her hands in defeat. "I
understand. She's upstairs, go see her." Barret and Tifa shot upstairs
while Cloud noticed that Jessie was plugging her laptop into the phone line.
"Jessie?" Cloud asked.
"I take it that you're going after
Aeris?"
"Yes."
"Well I know that when Sector Six
collapsed the train systems to Shinra HQ where abandoned because that was the
main route in." She explained.
He made a grunt of agreement before adding. "That's why they use the
helicopters."
"You can get up to Shinra HQ by climbing
up to that station, all the security sensors are off line and security is
minimal. You should be able to get up there no problems."
"Yea it's getting to the labs which is
going to be tricky." It was then Barret, Marlene and Tifa descended the
stairwell.
"Yo Spike, you gonna get Aeris back
aren't ya." Cloud only nodded in reply. "Well I'm comin' with ya. I
owe it to her for keeping Marlene safe." He then turned to Elmyra.
"Do ya mind takin' care of Marlene for me?"
"It's no problem." She replied.
"I'm coming too." Tifa added.
"It's not going to be easy." He
told her.
"I know but I would only go mad just
waiting here." Cloud nodded at this as Jessie produced three pairs of what
looked like mobile phones with headsets.
"These are PHS communications devices.
I'll be able to steer you through with the info I got from the Shinra database
when we hacked into it." She handed one set to each member of the team and
watched them set them up. "Hopefully I can get you through the building with little opposition."
'So naive.'
"I doubt it somehow, but I made her a
promise to keep her safe and I'm going to help her." Cloud said before
turning to leave.
'Or die in the process?'
'Or die in the process.' He replied to the
voice, he would save her or die rather than doing nothing.
End Of Chapter 7
