The Last of an Elite
Chapter Thirty-Six: Black and White
By InterfaceLeader
-~-~-~-
Reno discovered Reeve in his office, sitting on the floor with crossed legs and going patiently through scattered paper; shuffling it back into order.
"Reeve! What d'you think your doing?" Reno yelled, "Have you seen that thing in the sky? Has Rufus called? I bet the idiot's got himself killed - "
"They're all in Junon." Reeve said mildly, picking up two sheets of blueprints and studying them with a frown. "Busy with a few things I believe…"
"Busy!? People are panicking Reeve, we're gonna have riots unless we have answers! What the hell is he doing in Junon?"
Reeve looked up with some surprise. "Riots?"
"Yeah, things have been restless for a while now, and this lump of rock isn't going to help any! And with Heidegger and Scarlet gone we can't make full use of the army.. And both Rude and Elena have done runners! Leaving me to deal with the bloody riots I've no doubt."
Footsteps echoed down the corridor, Reno turned round in the doorway to see a short guard, who saluted and said smartly;
"Sir! Civic disturbances have been reported in sector's two, three and six."
Reno swung back to Reeve angrily. "See! Rufus needs to make a broadcast or something - this is just gonna spread otherwise! And Odin knows what the slummers are gonna think of it all - "
He cut himself off as the lights suddenly flickered and went dim. The noise of the reactors, which both Reno and Reeve had long since reduced to subliminal levels, suddenly increased; a steady machine driven roar that echoed round the city.
"What now….?" Reno crossed the room and looked out the window, quickly joined by Reeve and the guard. Looking towards the nearest reactor they saw a sharp, impossibly bright halo of green power around it, lengthening into a spike that zoomed upwards and inwards, joining up with similar streams of light from the other reactors somewhere directly above the Shinra HQ.
They all looked up.
"What the hell is that!?" Reno gaped at the massive flying black monster with a metallic sheen glittering along it's hide and reflecting the surge of mako light it was absorbing.
-~-~-~-
Rufus turned from the ocean view, a faint frown marring his smooth pale brow.
"Weapon must be fought," he said calmly to Heidegger and Scarlet. "Get the canon ready."
"The canon? But it hasn't been fired since the war with Wutai - we signed a treaty saying we wouldn't use it unless we got involved in another war! Kya-ha-ha!" Scarlet laughed nervously.
"Get it ready." Rufus turned back in time to see Weapon disappear beneath the moonlit water in a great spray of foam. "It's about time we started treating this seriously - like a war."
-~-~-~-
The citizens of Midgar poured out of their buildings in their thousands, shouting to each other and pointing up to the huge black shadow in the sky, who ignored them utterly whilst sucking up the mako. The reactors, unable to cope with the strain, began to whine; a horrible high pitched shriek that rebounded off the tall buildings and vibrated through the streets.
Reno swore and ran out the door, leaving Reeve and the guard staring blankly at the sky. Racing up the stairs and out onto the roof he stood directly below Weapon and cupped his hands round his mouth.
"Get the %@#!& hell away from this city! "
Weapon flicked one mighty black claw, the wave of mako energy stopped abruptly and the reactors cut out. Then it slowly lowered it's head and fixed two boiling red eyes on Reno.
"Uh….." Reno blinked as he contemplated the size of the creature looking down on him with an expression of studied hate. "You know… on second thought…"
Weapon let out a great roar and the roof of the Shinra building began to shake violently. Reno staggered backwards, and then fell over, unable to keep his balance on the vibrating floor. The weapon floated down towards him, metallic muscles rippling.
"A'right ya stupid black whatever you are! You don't wanna play nice, then neither do I!" Reno jumped to his feet and cast Neo-Turk Light at Weapon, who shuddered as the electricity smashed into it. Twisting in mid-air, it responded with a searing beam of light that went straight at Reno and sent him flying against the door leading back into the building. Grabbing it for support he muttered a few curse words under his breath.
"So much for the introductions…" Reno cast Pyramid up at the monster, though without much hope. Sure enough the glittering yellow triangle failed to enclose the massive form; stretching out into a gentle shimmer before fading into nothing.
Weapon responded with a long swipe, it's claw catching Reno across the chest and sending him flying again. Reno slid along the roof of the building and fetched up against the safety rail with a crunch. His shirt and chest torn into bloody tatters, he swore again. "Where's Rude when ya really need him?"
Weapon roared, sensing victory. Raising itself further into the sky it sucked in a breath, preparing for a final, devastating attack.
Reno pulled himself up onto one elbow and smirked to himself. All or nothing I guess… Man I hate relying on materia…
"Confuse!"
The spell whirled, a multi-coloured tornado of images that smacked Weapon right between the eyes. It staggered backwards and upwards, it's focus broken, the attack fizzling out. It shook it's head once, twice, red eyes clouding over.
Then, with a roar of confusion, it rose into the air and sped away, still shaking it's head.
"Coward!" Reno yelled after it "Sissy! Chicken! Can't handle a little spell or two huh? Call yourself a - whatever you call yourself!"
"Reno?" Reeve poked his head anxiously round the door. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine." Reno said, grinning. "Did you see the way I kicked that things ass? This deserves a drink or three - "
"Are you sure?" Reeve looked at the blood running in rivulets and pooling around the seated Turk.
"Hmm?" Reno looked down, and blinked. "Oh crap… I am so not going to hospital again."
"I have an elixir…"
"Did I ever tell you how much I love you?"
"I don't think you have, actually." Reeve took out the elixir and poured it over the redhead. "What was that thing?"
"Some big metal monster thingamajig. Nothing important." Reno bounced up cheerfully. "I'm sure I deserve a bonus for th - "
He was interrupted by the sudden unmistakable roar of an angry crowd echoing up from the street below. The riots - inflamed by the sight of weapon and the strange behaviour of the mako reactors - had arrived at the doors of Shinra. Reno leaned over the edge of the safety rail and looked at the enormous throng of people gathered below. Behind him, Reeve gulped.
"What… what are we going to do?"
"You tell me - you're meant to be in charge around here." Reno said, with a certain sarcasm.
"I'm not in charge! I was never meant to be in charge! I build things!"
A Shinra guard ran onto the roof and addressed himself to Reeve. "Sir! We're having difficulty in holding the perimeter, sir!"
"Ho - holding the perimeter?" Reeve looked at the guard, quivering at attention, and then at Reno, leaning casually against the rail with a smirk on his face.
"Maybe… maybe we should try reasoning with them…"
-~-~-~-
Elena watched the two guards push on the snowbound door, tapping her foot impatiently. All she wanted was to get out and return to Midgar. The knowledge that Reno now had the ability to fire her was adding to her desperate desire to prove herself an adequate Turk. Getting snowed in at Icicle Inn did not seem a professional thing to do, and she was taking out her frustration on the hapless guards.
"Oh for Shiva's sake! Get out the way and let me do it!" she snapped, as the door failed to budge. The guards moved aside silently, and she stepped up to the door, preparing to let loose all her strength on it's wooden surface.
Crunch!
The door smacked outwards, wedging itself half-open, and freezing air blew into the room. Elena shivered and pulled her jacket around her.
"Come on!" she scrambled through the gap, climbing up the heaped snow and found herself sinking waist deep into it. The guards followed, squeezing themselves through the narrow space with difficulty. For a moment all three floundered helplessly, caught in a quagmire of sinking snow, but then Elena struck out in a near swimming motion and started to force her way south.
-~-~-~-
"People of Midgar!" a thousand televisions flickered on, the forced broadcast sounding out across the city. Reeve's face, looking absolutely terrified, flashed up. "Please … remain calm! We are not in any danger, there is no crisis."
"Whose that?" A few people turned to look at the screens, stopping their noisy attack of the Shinra HQ. Relative silence descended on the crowd, as they stared in puzzlement at the brown eyed man with the worried expression.
"Rufus is not here presently, he is in Junon." Reeve continued. There was an angry rumble from the crowd at his words. "However I, and the rest of the Shinra employee's remaining here, are doing our best in difficult circumstances. We have already fought off the creature you saw earlier, and are now proceeding to damage assessment and rebuilding. The earthquakes and the meteor are not to be blamed on Shinra. They are the result of the work of…" Reeve faltered, hating what he was about to say. "the work of… madmen, terrorists, people working against Shinra and against us all."
"This is Avalanche's fault!" someone in the crowd yelled furiously.
"Yeah well, Shinra was meant to protect us from them assholes ages ago!" someone else yelled back.
"Avalanche are our saviours, they're not assholes!" a third person joined in.
"They dropped the #&*@ plate and killed millions of people you idiot! They're not our saviours!"
"That wasn't Avalanche! That was Shinra!"
"That's just a rumour!"
"A rumour with a hell of a lot of truth if you ask me!"
"Nobody did ask you, bastard!"
"C'mere here and say that!"
Voices rose and overwhelmed each other, and with a predatory scream the crowd turned on itself. Violence that had been directed toward Shinra became a confused crashing storm of insults and internal arguments that swept the crowd away down side streets, into separate knots of fighting, gesticulating men and women all shouting to make their point.
"The old divide and conquer trick eh?" Reno said, watching the street view being shown on the CCTV screen in the President's office where he was stood with a sweating Reeve.
"That… that wasn't what I wanted," groaned Reeve, watching an old woman batter a young man with her handbag whilst screaming obscenities about Avalanche. "Why can't people just be peaceful about things?"
Reno shrugged. "They'll all drift off home after they get tired off tearing each other to shreds."
Reeve continued to look doleful. "I've just started a whole new set of vendettas and grudges… people breaking up ancient friendships, and beating up potential ones… This will turn into yet another viscous circle of hate and anger, pro-Avalanche versus anti-Avalanche."
"As long as it's not anti-Shinra, frankly that's all I care about right now." Reno said, pulling absently at a tattered strip of his shirt. "I need a drink."
"Someone gets shot, they blow us up, we drop a plate…" Reeve said slowly, not listening to Reno. "Every time it's worse and less forgivable than the time before. What happens next? Does the world have to end before we realise we should have just lived and let live? Do we have to get bogged down in pointless feuds like this? Nobody is really evil! Everyone has a human side, a reason, a justification, everyone believes they're in the right! Why can't we - "
"Sephiroth is evil." Reno interrupted.
"Go ask him if he thinks he's evil! He probably thinks he's the good guy! He has reasons! Justifications!"
"I thought he was just plain psycho myself."
"No offence but a lot of people think you Turks are 'plain psycho's' too" Reeve retorted. "Nothing seems to be black and white anymore - "
"Look, Reeve, there's never been any black and white. There's just people. Of course everyone has a reason. No one wakes up and thinks; I'm gonna be really evil today! It just sort of turns out that way! You just do the things you do and that's it. There's no morality, no right and wrong, just rules we make up for our own benefit. Alright?"
"…. it's too complicated. I want there to be right and wrong." Reeve said, defeated.
"Well tough. There isn't." Reno said, still smarting from the psycho comment. "People get born, they do stuff, they die, they turn into a tree. Not complicated."
"Then why do we feel guilty?"
"Guilt is for wusses." Reno said firmly.
"People's morals are buttons by which they can be operated like machines." Hojo smiled faintly. "A person without morals is one with free will."
"Yeah, 'til he gets killed by an angry mob," snapped Reno.
"Yes, something of a problem. However, if you get a group of people without morals you get Shinra." Hojo gave his choked up repressed giggle. "A group with the ability to rule the world…."
"…….." Reno turned his head away from Reeve sharply. "Scratch that last comment."
Reeve looked up at the suddenly defensive Turk.
"Look, I've got better things to do than hang around here discussing right and wrong." Reno snapped. "I'm gonna get a drink."
Reeve watched the Turk, hastily leaving the room, with a puzzled frown. Then he shook his head and put his hand in the pocket, feeling the tiny control device there.
Alright Cait… time to do what's right.
-~-~-~-
Hojo paced. Rude watched. There was a feverish glitter in the scientists eyes, a jerky, possessed movement to the way he walked. He muttered things under his breath, barely caught hints of violence, death and depravity - but Rude watched with the blankness of a man whose thoughts were in another realm.
He was thinking of a woman, a woman with dark hair that moved like liquid when she walked. A woman with pale skin, and wide, wine coloured eyes. A woman that worked amongst alcohol fumes and cigarette smoke and added an altogether more exotic smell to them. A woman of beauty, patience, and gentleness.
A woman he loved.
A woman he had sentenced to death for a second time.
Behind the sunglasses his eyes had closed, behind the cold quiet façade his pulse raced and his skin burned.
"We'll start with this girl." Scarlet's harsh voice came through the speakers. The television screens were blank, only the sound came through. Rude had no desire to watch this execution, but the same sense of duty that had kept him watching the Sector Seven massacre kept him listening to the voices.
"If you've gotta do it... do me first!" Barret's voice, torn with anger, grief, desperate to save the life of his friend, if only for a few moments. Rude felt shame spill through his brain like a drug.
"Camera, this way! Make sure you get this, the audience just eats up tearful goodbyes!" Scarlet's voice again, confident, followed by the squeak of the metal door opening and Tifa being forced inside. Silence for a few moments, only the underlying static sound of the TV. And then the door crashed shut again, the noise reverberating around Rude's skull.
Let it be quick… Don't let her suffer…
"Well now, the show's about to begin. Ha, ha, ha!" Scarlet's unmelodious laugh.
And everything went red and a siren started to sound.
Rude opened his eyes, to discover the alarm lights lit up all along one wall. Hojo had paused in his pacing, and was watching him instead.
"Emergency! Emergency!" the intercom crackled into life, the voice sounding over the siren. "Weapon's approaching! Attention all military personnel: take your positions!"
"Interesting…" murmured Hojo. "I suppose you'll be aiding in the defence?"
"……." Rude reached up to the intercom and switched it off. "…. my job is to watch you."
And besides, I have to know exactly when. The agony of knowing is better than the agony of not.
The initial sounds from the execution room trickled back in.
"How does it feel now, Scarlet?" A chirpy, high-pitched voice. One of the reporters perhaps.
"Hmm, so you didn't run? I'm impressed. How do I feel? Right now......"
A hiss.
"Nngaaaaaahhhh!"
Barret's low voice in sharp contrast to that of the reporter. "Huh!? Sleeping gas?"
"Weirdo!!" Guards voices, Rude knew by the immediate follow up of machine gun fire. Crash, thump, more gunfire and then the reporters voice again;
"I'm here to help!"
"Why you......? Ain't you part of Shinra?" Barret, sounding confused. Rude frowned; no reporters were part of Shinra as far as he knew.
"Let's just say I'm against capital punishment. Besides... I hate this broad. Come on, we gotta help Tifa." The reporter-Shinra employee-traitor spoke quickly. "I'll keep watch at the entrance."
Rude clicked the TV sound off as well, the wash of shame fading. Tifa wasn't going to die, Avalanche was going to rescue her, everything was going to be fine.
Except… just who was the Shinra traitor?
-~-~-~-
A/N: Sorry for the wait ^^;; This chapter got rewritten about 6 times, plus I was in a different country to my computer for a week. Hopefully this final version will suffice ^_~