The Last of an Elite
Chapter Forty Five: Find Turks, Kill Turks
By InterfaceLeader
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In Hojo's laboratory, animals and monsters stirred at the sound of marching footsteps echoing throughout the Shinra building. The soft whines of creatures in pain became overshadowed by the low growls of bestial unnatural beings that had been disturbed. The smell of blood was in the air, the panic and fury of the revolution being transmitted to the experiments.
Inside the domed structure that had held Jenova it stirred, sensing sublimely that it's time had come.
The Shin-Ra Security system had been a triumph of science, physics and biology combined. Monsters roamed the corridors and many of the rooms, tiny electronic chips implanted in their nervous systems controlling them and allowing them to identify everyone who carried a key card. Tiny computerised systems allowed them to make rudimentary assessments of the carriers to see if they matched their card.
Hojo had subverted the technology; instead of the signal creating a desire not to attack he had made a creature whose sole desire was to seek out the carriers of a specific card signal.
It was a signal emitted by the key cards of those people who belonged to a very special group. This creature had had one goal programmed into its nervous system.
Find Turks. Kill Turks.
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The battle outside the jail cells raged. In that tiny area were crammed a mass of fighting men and women. They fought with desperation and rage; the Soldiers had forgotten their loyalties, all they wanted to do was survive. One by one swords clattered to the ground, their bearers slumping dead, to be trampled and tripped over by the survivors.
Joanna was pressed against the back of her cell, eyes round with fear and shock as the people boiled around her. There seemed to be no way through the flailing limbs: she was trapped in a noisy cage of flesh.
And then, as suddenly as it had begun, it was over. The last Soldier fell and the Guards were triumphant. They stood, somewhat stunned, many of them wounded. Then a victory whoop pierced the air and they were cheering and hugging each other. The air turned green for a while as comrades were cured.
Then the doors to the cells were thrown open and the occupants were dramatically awarded their freedom. Joanna found herself - as the only civilian woman there - the centre of attention. She was at first bewildered and frightened, and then slowly she caught the spirit of goodwill and cheered as enthusiastically as any other person there.
The crowd began to drift away from the cells, looking for other groups of rebels to share their joy with. Joanna managed to separate herself from the main group and headed off to the right. The gun she had been given was clasped tightly in her hand.
She still needed her personal victory.
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"Reno," Elena said to the young redhead pressed so forlornly against the wall. "Reno, you have to talk to me. Tell me what's wrong."
Reno ignored her, lost in a private world of guilt, pain and death.
"It's no use." Elena said despairingly to Rude. "I don't think he even hears me!"
Rude shook his head. He didn't have any idea how to cure Reno, his suggestions so far having been limited to offering his partner a bottle of whisky. It hadn't worked.
"He looks so lost…" Elena felt tears fill her eyes. "This is all Hojo's fault!"
"………?" Rude looked at her.
"You didn't know? He brainwashed him when he was recruited… And I don't know, but I think it must've… worn off or something! And now he must feel really really bad for all the things he's done!"
"…… brainwashed……" Rude understood, and felt instant hate towards the scientist.
"Yes," Elena again tried to get through to the Turk. "Reno, it's not your fault!"
Rude walked over to the window and glared at the wreckage of Sector Seven. It must've really got to him, a view like this everyday.
Suddenly the door rattled, as something hard hit it from the other side. Rude spun to face it, watching the barricade closely.
The door shook again, and the barricade shifted slightly, pushed away. Elena and Rude glanced at each other.
"It doesn't sound like guards…" Elena said nervously. And as though her voice was a trigger, something gave a furious snarling roar and slammed into the door a third time.
"………" Rude was silent as he checked his materia and prepared to face this new threat.
"You know what?"
"… what?"
"I bet Reno would of said something really dumb or crazy and made us all laugh just then."
"……… probably."
The door burst open, the makeshift barricade shattering outwards. Standing framed in the doorway was a hideous looking thing, thick mottled green skin covering massively over muscled thighs and shoulders, and breaking apart to allow vile yellow spikes to erupt from it at random. Wickedly sharp claws and teeth gleamed, and drool rolled from it's gaping mouth. It stood at nearly eight feet, hunched forward to get through the door and the spikes on it's back dragging through the top of the doorway and breaking apart the frame.
"……… one of Hojo's." Rude cast fire, but the flames that boiled around the creature did little to damage its thick damp skin.
Elena cast confuse, but the spell was no more successful than Rude's, the monster simply lashed out at her, so fast she couldn't follow the movement. She cried out as the claws slashed deep into her and threw her backwards, bleeding. Rude grunted with fury, and pulled out his gun sending an explosive shot into the beast. It staggered sideways, wounded. Elena took advantage of the distraction and slid away from it, towards her desk. There were potions in the drawer.
Rude lowered the gun slightly and regarded the ragged bullet wound in the creature he had shot. The skin around it was bubbling and stretching unpleasantly, and he realised it was regenerating, and regenerating fast.
"………" he shot again, getting it in one swollen shoulder and then again. As he loosed the third one however, it jumped forward, the ceiling crumbling around its spikes as the bullet whistled past it. It slammed straight into Rude, and he rolled over backwards in an effort to escape its flashing teeth and claws that ripped and tore frenziedly.
"Rude!" Elena forgot the potions and her own wounds, running to help. She punched it wildly, distracting it enough to turn on her and send her flying backwards. She slid the full length of the room, slamming into the wall next to Reno. She gasped with pain, automatically reaching for her gun.
It wasn't there. She looked around her wildly and saw it some distance away. It had clearly fallen free when she had flown across the room.
She dived towards it, but the monster was quicker, leaping in front of her and slashing at her face. She was temporarily blinded as blood spilled from the gash marks.
"Get back!" Rude's voice had lost its emotionless tone as he saw Elena being ripped almost to pieces in front of him. She seemed to be bleeding everywhere, and the gun bucked angrily in his hand as he shot again and again, trying to get this thing to get away from her. The wounds smashed up its body, healing over almost as soon as they appeared. The thing ripped again at the woman in front of him, and Rude gave up on the gun, running forward and leaping onto it's back between the spikes and attempting to throttle it. It was a hopeless task; the tendons in its neck were like steel pipes bulging against his hands.
Elena backed away, blood spilling from her and leaving a sticky red trail as she moved. The thing was bucking around, trying to get to the man on its back. She wiped the blood from her eyes, knowing that Rude wasn't going to be able to hold on for long. She looked around, searching desperately for something to help. Her gun had slid from sight; her desk was out of reach.
"Reno!" she grabbed her partners shoulder and shook him desperately. "You've got to help!"
The strange green-blue eyes continued to stare into a reality she couldn't touch. There was no help coming from here. She looked up desperately as Rude finally flew from the back off the creature and crashed into a desk. Then reaching across Reno she pried the electro-mag rod from his fingers and lurched to her feet.
"Hey! Get away from him!" her voice shook as she shouted, the blood loss was taking its toll.
The thing flicked the figure of Rude aside like a rag doll, and she felt something inside her ice up as she saw his limp body. Her shaking became harder as it paced towards her, hungry, angry eyes taking in her tiny blood soaked figure.
It leaned forward almost lazily, claws reaching in to tear out her throat,
She jumped, and with all the strength she could muster, drove the electro-mag rod straight into its cavernous tooth-lined mouth, through the roof. Her thumb pushed down on the button and she let go, dropping back to the floor as the slim metal rod delivered its payload of electricity directly into the monsters brain.
It let out a tremendous roar of pain, it's claws raking desperately at its own face as it staggered back, every muscle and tendon twitching horribly in the microsecond before it crashed to the floor, stone dead.
Elena shuddered uncontrollably, as she stepped around it and ran for her desk. Inside the drawer was the collection of items - potions, armour, materia and a phoenix down. She took the latter and poured it over the prone body of Rude, praying desperately under her breath. To her utmost relief he stirred and then sat up with a groan.
"Rude - Rude you're alright!" she burst into tears of relief.
"…………" Rude looked up at the crying bleeding girl, and then turned and looked at the prone body of the thing. "…… you killed it?"
"I… I… I guess I did." Elena too looked at the fallen monster. "What was it!?"
"……" Rude shook his head. "… an escaped experiment. Well done."
She glanced back at him, surprised. Compliments from her partners were rare to say the least. "Thank you."
"……… you're hurt." Rude took out his cure materia, preparing to cast it. Elena caught his hand before he could start. "Wait!"
He looked down at the smooth orb in his hand. It had all the colour and luminance of a rock.
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Tseng studied the line-up of grey materia in front of him. A puzzled frown marred his face as he picked one up and turned it over in his hands, looking for any clue, anything at all which could tell him where the energy had gone.
It was flawless, a perfect sphere. Often the ones found wild were irregular, or bumpy, but these had all been sanded into beautiful symmetrical curves, that fitted snugly into armour and weapon slots.
He dropped it back next to the others and leant back against the wall. Energy could not be created or destroyed; it could only be transferred from one form to another. That was a basic and fundamental law of the Universe. Which meant that the energy contained in the materia could not have just disappeared, it had to have been moved.
But where? And why?
He glanced out of the window, and saw the meteor hanging in the sky above. Not hanging, he reminded himself, falling.
His religion had taught that the Planet was a sentient being. Research performed at Cosmo Canyon had suggested a similar idea, but the results had been withheld by Shin-Ra. The energy that was the core of the Planet was the same energy that lived inside materia. Did that make the materia sentient?
He reminded himself of the SME - the Summon Materia Effect. The Gods were certainly sentient.
So, assume then that the materia has a minor awareness of itself. Could it have chosen to leave?
Tseng sighed. That idea seemed ridiculous, even if he stretched his imagination a little. The idea of all the materia energy suddenly deciding to walk out - well, it couldn't happen.
If it couldn't work proactively… it could at least work reactively? After all, it responded to the energy inside a spell caster every time it was used.
Could it react to any source of energy?
The biggest source of energy was that of the Planet itself of course. And he'd already decided to assume that it possessed a form of intelligence powered by the lifestream.
Everything was connected to the lifestream… when people died their souls, their energy entered it. Why couldn't materia energy do the same?
Again he lifted his eyes to the Meteor blasting towards them - so fast, and yet so frighteningly slow.
Did the Planet know Meteor was falling? Was it preparing itself?
Why had Aerith appeared to him?
Listen…
Tseng rubbed the back of his neck, reflecting on a number of things. He had been taught the rituals to communicate with the Planet from the time he could walk. The Planet had never chosen to speak to him, but perhaps now it was in trouble…
He sighed and stood up. Collecting together the grey materia he put them in a drawer and left the room. Communication could only exist between a human and the Planet in a state of nature, so he headed for the garden Elmyra and Marlene had taken over and worked on together. It was not ideal - too close to the Mako reactor for one thing - but it would have to suffice.
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The fight between the Guards and the Soldiers had spilled out of the Shinra building into the streets of upper-Midgar. Knots of people battled everywhere, whilst elsewhere looters smashed windows and set fire to vehicles. Frightened citizens had either hidden, or fled downwards into the slums. Emergency services had broken down, and bodies were left to rot in the streets whilst flames ate everything they could with hungry abandon.
Reeve made the last connection whilst overlooking this chaos. Above him Meteor burned, dying the sky a deep virulent red. He had no idea if it was night or day.
The televisions, radios and intercoms across the city spluttered to life. Some were burnt out husks, some had been smashed, but there were enough to be audible in most places. Reeve took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He hadn't planned what to say, all he knew was he had to take control of this situation and get everyone out of Midgar. His knuckles whitened and he breathed out slowly.
"Guards and Soldiers, citizens of Midgar of both below and above the plate - you are in enormous danger." he began. "I speak to you not as a representative of Shin-Ra, nor as the leader of the rebels. I speak to you as a human being concerned only with getting everyone to safety, regardless of their finances or status. Meteor is falling, and this senseless fighting will not save us from it! Drop your weapons, for if you persist in this battle you will all be killed regardless of who wins."
"Already many of the holders of the keys to the city are dead, and with their deaths goes the keys. I myself hold one, and I ask that all those alive and listening who posses a key to begin to make their way to Sector Three and open the gate there. The rest of you will follow shortly and we will evacuate the city."
"If you can, collect tins of food and medical equipment. Forget about family treasures and money, they are not important."
"The Planet is in great danger, but it is being dealt with by a volunteer group." Reeve's voice began to swell as he spoke of Avalanche. "They are fighting to save your life, whoever you may be. They are fighting for the guards, the slummers, the soldiers and all the people of this city. Let your life be one worth saving. Do your best to help one another. Set aside prejudice. Carry those who cannot walk, heal those who are wounded, protect those who need protecting."
"Together we can deal with this threat to all of us. Apart we can only be destroyed. You are all needed, and you all need each other. Please make sure as many as possible make it to safety, and in return they will help you get to safety."
"We will be evacuating through the Sector Three gate. Thank you."
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Both Elena and Rude had frozen when Reeve's voice came over the intercom, and it was only as his voice died away that they became aware that Elena still held Rude's hand. Blushing hotly, she dropped it and hurried to the drawer of her desk where she quickly collected together all of her potions and curative items. Rude did the same, but poured several of his over Elena and himself, healing their wounds. Throughout all of this Reno had remained silent and lost.
"Sector Three." Elena attempted to sound businesslike. "We'll have to hurry, since we're key holders."
Rude nodded, and headed out through the destroyed doorframe. Elena took hold of Reno's arm and led him after the tall bald figure.
Joanna detached herself from the wall of the corridor, her gun still held loosely in one hand. She had seen the way the two Turks had held hands throughout the entire of Reeve's speech and her face was twisted with rage. She had known there had to be another woman involved!
Her plans had altered slightly now. The fight she had witnessed between the two Turks and the strange monster had made her slightly more wary. She had to kill instantly, in a fight she was sure to lose.
She went into the abandoned Turk office, her eyes alighting on the unopened cupboard at the very corner of the room. She tried it, but it was locked. Taking her gun she shot clumsily at the lock, hitting it more by luck than judgement.
Inside the cupboard were ranks of weapons, all easily concealable and all very very deadly.
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A/N: Another long chapter ^^; If you're wondering why the Turks don't use the weapons from that cupboard a bit more often as opposed to guns and fists all the time, the answer is pretty simple: materia slots/growth, training, and the fact that most of the weapons in the cupboard are specialised assassination tools and fairly useless in hand-to-hand combat.
Reviews (and constructive criticism) welcomed as ever! As soon as LoaE ends I promise you I will be starting on another 'project', which will focus on a multitude of characters from FF7 and will be set after the game. It will be a semi-sequel to LoaE, and will of course have plenty about the Turks ^_~