There was blood. Not splattered everywhere like in a late-night horror film. Just slowly pooling under the corpses. That was the first thing Cloud noticed. And from there on, he didn't even have to look. He could have closed his eyes then and there and still described the scene in perfect detail. He'd seen it too many times before.
...Cloud...
A voice. Far away... where did he know that voice from..?
"Cloud?"
"Holy hell..."
Only one person could kill like that. Cold. Clean. Clinical...
"Cloud...this can't be..."
"Sephiroth..." Cloud muttered from between clenched teeth. The word seemed to hang in the air and echo ominously around them.
"He's... not dead?" Reno said, shades of doubt colouring his usually assured voice.
"If he's not, he soon will be," replied Cloud, unsheathing his sword and starting down the corridor. Reno grabbed him back and spun him round so the two were facing each other.
"Are you insane?! This is Sephiroth we're talking about! You can't just fight that guy!"
"This is none of your business, Reno!" Cloud shouted back, pulling himself out of Reno's grip and setting back off. The ex-Turk turned desperately to Tifa.
"We need to get out of here!"
But Tifa was already running after Cloud.
Reno wavered for a moment. Then, every instinct that had kept him alive for his twenty-five years screaming at him, he followed her.
There were flames. After sprinting down several corridors, not really knowing where he was going but letting some overwhelming instinct carry him, Cloud found himself up against a wall of fire. The entire corridor stretched out in front of him was ferociously ablaze, and there was no alternative route.
Cloud blinked, and shook his head. How did he know...?
Just visible through the inferno was a single door. Through there. That was where he needed to be.
...X year, X month, X day...
A sound behind him sent Cloud spinning around, his weapon ready, but he relaxed slightly as he saw Tifa's concerned eyes. He didn't know whether to be relieved or annoyed at the fact that Reno was with her.
...project JV-101 opened...
"Cloud...we can't get through there..."
...subject shows little change...
Cloud glared at the flames as if willing them to disappear. Then he realised something wasn't quite right...
...Jenova and Mako treatments are finally taking...
...What the hell? It wasn't going to be anything a Cure spell couldn't help...
...X year, X month, X day: Subject deteriorating rapidly, recovery is highly unlikely...
Tifa gave an involuntary yelp as her husband thrust a hand straight into the flames. He held it there for a while, then brought it out and flexed his fingers. His hand was completely unscathed.
"Just an illusion..." Cloud said, more to himself than his two dumbstruck companions. It was...strange. He could hear the roars of the fire, feel the heat, but...
"Does $%&*ing weird stuff just follow you around, or what?" said Reno, tension clear in his voice. He was ignored.
"Let's go," said Cloud, taking a deep breath.
...X year, X month, X day: Subject is dead. Project JV-101 officially closed...
From the outside the archive room look as though it too was ablaze, but as soon as Cloud stepped through the door the scene was restored to eerie calm. The roar of the flames and the fierce heat had stopped instantly, to be replaced with darkness and... no. Not silence. At first Cloud wasn't sure whether he was actually hearing anything or just reliving a tortured memory. Then... yes. The sound of footfalls almost too light to be human, the swish of a long coat, and occasionally, the sound of a page being turned. Cloud ground his teeth. He's taunting you...
Cloud was now barely aware of the two others behind him. He crept carefully down the aisles of shelves towards the noise, barely daring to breathe, adrenaline pumping. Just around the next corner...
A soft, sinister laugh from close by pushed Cloud over the edge, despite the alarm bells that were suddenly ringing in the back of his mind. He quickly rounded the corner, weapon ready, and stood at the end of the aisle...
A figure dressed entirely in black was standing in front of the shelves, head bowed over a document. It wasn't Sephiroth.
Long, midnight black hair, slenderly built under her full-length trenchcoat, her features sharply defined on skin that was unnaturally pallid and her eyes completely hidden behind dark glasses, the woman turned in a single smooth movement that sent her coat swirling as if in a breeze. For the tiniest fraction of a second her expression went blank. Then she smiled.
The file was ash before it hit the floor.
"Cloud Strife..."
"Who the hell are you?!"
The words never came, for at that moment Cloud reeled. His mind was flooded alien thoughts and it was all he could do just to keep a focus on his surroundings. Through the haze he saw a crackling blue mist begin to materialise around the mysterious woman, and managed to summon the clarity of thought to realise what was coming and dive to the floor as pillars of pure energy slammed down around him.
It only lasted a few seconds, and when it finished Cloud looked around to see his two companions also picking themselves up off the floor. Their attacker was nowhere to be seen.
"Cloud! Are you alright? What happened to you?" Tifa blurted, rushing over to him. Cloud shook his head to clear the last of the mental haze.
"I think she must've used some kind of confuse spell on me," he said, trying to sound more sure of the statement than he felt. He paused and looked around at the shelves upset by the attack, lost in thought. Eventually he came to decision.
"I think we'd better get out of here."
This was... perfect. An attack on the Kielestis Inc. HQ, by a Wutain assailant. Just what they needed. Carefully orchestrated, this could put the people on edge. A raise in international tension, and it would never be linked back to Kielestis. They could be seen to be responding to a threat, not causing one. They would be trusted, even respected. Yes, this was almost too good.
It had to be her doing.
Professor Val Gehenna, de facto owner of Kielestis Inc., stood in the company's archive room and let the ash that had been one of the old Jenova project files run through his fingers. It was no loss - the entire archive had been transferred to computer database, of course. In fact, today Kielestis Inc. had gained information far more valuable than its entire "official" archive.
Preliminary sorties to the area around the Northern Crater had discovered Jenova infected monsters. That had been expected, whether Jenova was alive or not. But now enough data had been gathered to see a pattern emerging in the creatures' movements.
They were, as one, single mindedly, heading for the centre of the crater. That could only mean one thing.
Jenova was in control. She was alive.
And Professor Gehenna was going to use all the resources he had to make sure she stayed that way.
It also couldn't be a coincidence that the same day the first Jenova samples were shipped to the HQ, two specimens turn up and cause a ruckus. Gehenna had given orders for them both to be tracked down. The first, a blonde young man whose eyes told of at the very least Mako infusion, was not so important, though at this point any long-term subjects were scarce. As for the second... he'd almost laughed. Hybrid 2. So, she'd escaped the Shin-ra building. It would seem Jenova specimens had an unfortunate habit of doing that. That was one of the reasons why the Kielestis labs were so secure, after all. They couldn't afford to have their experiments wandering around in the present public climate.
Gehenna ran a hand through his short, dusty brown hair. The last thing Kielestis needed right now was to be connected to another Sephiroth. If Hybrid 2 wasn't caught quickly enough, that would almost certainly be what they had on their hands. Then again, catching her should be far easier said than done, and Gehenna couldn't help feeling that if she were captured he would have to class her, on some level, as a failure. But it couldn't be helped - without her his work would be put back all of twenty years.
Okay, a little shorter than the previous chapters, but I didn't want to waffle just to make up the rest of the word count. I hope the fact that something like a plot is finally kicking off compensates. And slowly but surely the religious references are creeping in - I thought Gehenna would make a perfect name for a conterpart to Hojo. - Anguipes Seraph