The Last of an Elite

Chapter Thirty-Seven: The Beginning of the End

By InterfaceLeader

-~-~-~-

The bottle slipped from between his fingers as he slid into sleep, it's solid form hitting the ground and rolling in a semi-circle; leaving a glittering trail of brown fluid behind it.

Red hair frayed out across the pillow as he twisted in his sleep, his legs entangling with the sheet. Green light filtered in through the window; shining across his pale skin.

The train carriage was nearly full. A woman with a five year old son who kept squirming and kicking. An elderly man reading a newspaper, trying to ignore the fidgeting child beside him. A Shinra employee doing his daily commute, looking at his watch in impatience. The man that slept on the train, treating it like his home. A young couple, giggling and cooing at each other. A nine year old boy sat rigid in his seat, clearly on his first train trip by himself. A woman with her head in her hands, perhaps having been rejected from the Shinra army.

They sat in relative silence, the tunnel lights flashing past their window.

A muffled boom echoed through the train, the five year old jumped excitedly and exclaimed. The old man rustled his newspaper, annoyed.

A crunching noise. The Shinra employee looked out the window and blinked. The tunnel was peeling away, cracking and opening. For a moment he looked out over Sector Seven, seeing the slums from above. Then the tracks tore loose.

The train started to plummet downwards. The people screamed as they fell to the front of the carriage; the mother clutching her son desperately, trying to shield him within herself. The old man shouting out questions, what is happening, what is going on. The couple clutched each other, screaming, as pieces of metal and concrete and bodies fell past the window.

The depressed woman lunged for the door, trying to pull it open. There was a sound of screeching metal, and the front of the carriage smashed open, tearing itself to pieces on a jagged spike of broken plate. The nine year old boy was ripped apart with it, the spike slicing up through him in a spray of blood. The rest fell out the front of the train, becoming part of the tumbling debris. The newspaper spilled it's pages into the air as the old man plummeted towards the ground. The depressed woman hit a lump of falling concrete and was dead instantly, staining it red. The mother lost her grip on her son and screamed in horror as he whirled away into the destruction.

Her voice merged with that of the employee as his arm was torn off by the wreckage of the broken track. Screams, lost in the solid roar of the falling plate.

He clawed at the pillow, the screams resounding through his head. He couldn't breathe, he felt like he was drowning. The sheets were tangled around him, trapping him against the bed. He ripped at them, overwhelming panic sending him sprawling headlong out of the bed and onto the floor.

His hand hit the whiskey bottle and it crunched, shards of glass cutting into his palm. Pain brought him back into himself and he sat up, breathing heavily. Blood was running through his fingers, and he picked up a shirt that was lying on the floor and wrapped it around the wound.

Great Odin that was a bad dream. He shook his head. I need a drink…

-~-~-~-

Reeve watched the electricians, builders, and assorted workmen as they milled around the break in the plate. He was tired, it was nearly two in the morning and whilst the labourers got to work shifts he was the only one who could oversee the repair work.

"Watch out for the sewage pipes" he called to one man who was cutting away bent and twisted metal from the crack. The man grunted in reply, resentful of the fact he had to work at night.

Traffic had piled up even at this time, and angry drivers honked their horns loudly at the roadwork signs. Reeve rubbed his eyes and wondered why he didn't just let them drive over the break until it split open and dropped them all down to the slums.

No… it wouldn't be fair on whoever's underneath.

"Reeve! How's it going buddy? Toddly-pop!"

"Toddl - " Reeve turned and gaped at the man who had appeared behind him. "Palmer!? I thought you were dead!"

"Pip-pop, nope! That was something Rufus called propaganda! I'm a picture of health!" Palmer beamed at the surprised looking Reeve.

"But… but…." Reeve goggled at the brown suited rocket scientist. "You got hit by a truck!"

"Yup!" Palmer giggled and slapped his ample stomach. "The doctor said I was well cushioned! Anyway, Rufus wants to see you. And guess what?"

"Uh… what?" Reeve said, wondering what Rufus could want with him. Had he found out he had defected to Avalanche? Reeve started sweating at the thought.

"Scarlet and Heidegger gave the Space Program a handout of sixty-million Gil! Want to go celebrate with a nice cupcake and cup of tea?"

"Bugger!" the workman swore suddenly, and Reeve turned back around to see sewage spurting up out of the square hole he had cut.

"…. You know." Reeve sighed. "I think I will."

-~-~-~-

Music throbbed through the room, lights flashed and spun in multicoloured, glittering waves. People surged, the constant changing lights adding a stop-motion effect to the frenzied, alcohol fuelled dancing.

Reno was more than happy to lose himself in the heaving mixture of sound and movement, whiskey coursed like wild-fire through his veins, adrenaline flooded his brain, all memories of the past and all thoughts of the future vanished in the pounding tide. It was what he wanted.

-~-~-~-

Reeve stood to the rear of the room, as far away from Rufus as he could get. The Cait Sith control device was whirring quietly in his pocket, its hum negligible. Heidegger and Palmer were sat at the long table, their hands resting on the surface.

Rufus ran a hand through his hair and then turned to face them, his eyes travelling slowly from face to face. Reeve found himself meeting the Presidents frosty blue eyes square on; for some reason he felt exhilarated rather than fearful at the thought of capture.

"Now then...... We're faced with two issues." Rufus kept his gaze focused on Reeve. "1. Destroy Meteor. 2. Remove the barrier around North Cave and defeat Sephiroth."

He raised a hand and pointed it at the three of them.

"Any ideas?"

"Gya haah hah hah! We already solved the first problem!" Heidegger laughed. "Meteor will soon be smashed to bits! The plan has already been put in motion. Namely, to collect Huge Materia from each region."

Scarlet entered the room as if on cue. She glanced across at Reeve and her lips twitched as thought about to laugh. Restraining herself, she turned to Rufus.

"Huge Materia is a high density special type of materia made through a special compression process in Mako reactors." She gestured expansively. "The energy extracted from it is 330 times the strength of normal materia. Ha, ha, ha! How about that!?"

She crossed her arms and turned to face Reeve, speaking directly to him.

"We will gather all the Huge Materia together and ram it into Meteor."

Reeve looked back at her, wondering why she seemed so intent on emphasising that to him. She studied him for a bare second and then swung back to Rufus.

"That will cause a huge explosion!! Reducing Meteor literally to bits."

"You're going to ram into Meteor?" Rufus frowned at Scarlet. "Do you think we have the technology to do it?"

"Don't worry about that!" Scarlet smiled at Rufus. "More importantly, we've got to collect Huge Materia from each area."

"We've already collected materia from Nibelheim." Heidegger interrupted, unwillingly to let the dark eyed blonde have all the glory. "All that's left is 'Corel' and 'Fort Condor'. I've already dispatched troops to Corel. Ghaa haah hah hah!"

Reeve put his hand in his pocket, ending the transmission and giving control back to Cait Sith. Avalanche had enough information to start working against Shinra again.

"Very good" Rufus nodded. "As soon as we have collected all the Huge Materia together report back to me. Dismissed."

Scarlet, Heidegger and Palmer left the room, but as Reeve passed Rufus, the President held out a hand and stopped him. "Just a moment Reeve…"

"… sir?" Reeve felt his stomach lurch.

Rufus raised an eyebrow at him. "Don't look so nervous. I trust you more than anyone else in this building Reeve. You have your job, you do it well. You're dependable."

"Uh… thank you sir."

"We fight a difficult battle. Sephiroth is strong, stronger than you can imagine. I truly doubt we have heard the last from Avalanche. The Planet itself is arrayed against us." Rufus turned from the brown haired man. "On top of that someone is spreading dissent throughout the Shinra army. Hojo is rapidly dissolving into insanity. The Turks have lost their most formidable member."

Reeve rubbed the side of his foot against the floor. "You make our situation sound hopeless sir."

"Not hopeless. Just difficult." Rufus smirked. "If something should happen to me, for whatever reason, I don't want Shinra to fall into the hands of oafs and incompetents. I considered my options. And you seemed the best candidate of the bunch."

"S-sir?"

"If I die Reeve, you become President of Shinra."

-~-~-~-

Rude was more than glad to be relieved of his mission to watch Hojo by three members of Soldier when he returned to Midgar. The three men took Hojo away, up to his lab. Rude straightened his jacket, and walked up the stairs to the Turks office. He hoped Reno would be there, he had missed his friends sharp sense of humour.

To his disappointment the redhead was missing, only Elena sat at her computer, managing to look exhausted and enthusiastic at the same time.

"…" Rude glanced at the clock and sighed. Reno was often late, but rarely this late.

If he's not careful, he'll get demoted, Rude thought. And that will mean I'll get put in charge, which I really don't want. I wish he'd be just a little more responsible sometimes…

-~-~-~-

Heidegger and Scarlet sat in silence, waiting for the first call. They didn't have to wait long. The PHS buzzed loudly in the centre of the room, and they both jumped for it. Scarlet got there first and quickly spun away from Heidegger whilst listening to the Guard on the opposite end.

"Yes, yes you're reporting from Corel… did you get it?……………No!? Why not?……… Avalanche took it? How did they know?……… Alright, stop making pathetic excuses! Kya ha ha ha ha! Get your squad over to Fort Condor now……… I have a bad feeling about this!"

She threw the PHS onto the desk and glowered at Heidegger. "Your useless guards let Avalanche steal it."

"My useless guards? Gya ha ha! You're the one whose in charge of them!"

"Oh don't give me that!"

The two sat in stony silence again, fury radiating from both of them as they worked at separate tasks. When the PHS buzzed again they both leapt for it, this time Heidegger managing to grab it first.

"Gya ha ha ha! Did you get it?…………What do you mean you were beaten? Did you follow my battle strategy?………………………Hopeless! Gya ha ha ha! ……… I don't care what happened to the Condor!"

He slammed the PHS down and glowered at Scarlet. "Another failure!"

"We have two Huge Materia already," she said sharply. "It should be enough. But we need to get the one from Junon to Rocket Town before Avalanche gets to it! Kya ha ha ha!"

"I'll send a full complement of Shinra Guards - "Heidegger began.

"They've already messed up twice! Kya ha ha ha! I'll send my new invention, 'Carry Armor'!"

"And I'll send Reno." Heidegger had little faith in machines. "And he can meet up with Rude at Rocket Town. Gya ha ha ha!"

"I'd ask why you weren't including Elena." Scarlet said sharply. "But we don't have time. I'll go and arrange transport for Carry Armor. You get those Turks in gear. Kya ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

-~-~-~-

A/N: Over 100 reviews! Thank you all so much ^_^

This chapter is a little on the violent side, but hopefully nobody got offended by that.