Author's Notes:
Aeris is found out. Scarlet has an interesting proposition. Gods, I hate Scarlet....
"But remember sir...you must call it the Sister Ray!"
Tseng silently watched the young girl, glad that he had found her at last. The search had been long and hard, but Sector Five had yielded results. The girl who had escaped from Shin-Ra Tower had wandered into the Sector Five slums, where Tseng and the Turks had kept a watch for the girl Hojo wanted.
All throughout Midgar, people had been sent to find her, and here she was, walking into the crumbling old church of an ancient and nearly forgotten religion. Tseng cared not for the decaying building, or for the Jesus-man, the mythological figure to whom it had been built in centuries past.
He stared at her, wondering what was so important about this girl who could be no more then seven.
She went into the church, and Tseng followed in the shadows. She opened to door, and he slipped inside just after her. Looking around him, he gasped, for the entire building was bathed with streams of sunlight. Sunlight, here under the Plate!
But there was more here. In a large hole in the floorboards, the earth was bared. Tseng knew that the soil of the slums was too poisoned to support any kind of life, but a small plant grew out of it, as if it was defying all that Shin-Ra had done to the Planet.
She walked over to the plant and watered it using a bucket standing near the shattered altar. Then something almost as odd happened, the plant did not die at the contact with the water. Everyone knew that the water in the slums had to go through extensive purification before it was safe to use. But the girl, finished watering her plant, lifted the bucket to her lips and drank. Tseng nearly gasped. He watched as she tended her plant, and then followed her home, noting where she lived.
*****
The view from the top floor was amazing, something that would probably make poets burst forth into verse. President Shin-Ra did not care for poets. Nor did he care for verse. President Shin-Ra only cared about money. That he had to tread on many fingers on his path to being the most powerful man on the Planet was of no matter to him. And soon he was about to tread on a few more fingers. He stared out the window reflectively.
"What do you think of it, Mr. President?" A tall, thin woman in a clingy red dress, her bleach-blonde hair piled around her head, looked at Shin-Ra inquisitively. The President returned his glance to a sheaf of blueprints on his huge desk. Just a tiny fraction of what was already on it, but what the blueprints contained would help secure his power.
"What did you call it, Scarlet? A...Sister Ray, wasn't it, dear?"
"Yes, Mr. President. The Sister Ray. A reminder to those slanty-eyed Wutese." The President winced at Scarlet's use of 'slanty-eyed'. Political correctness was important if you wanted to have a cohesive empire. He made a mental note to have the Turks sweep the room for bugs. If the press heard that, they would have a field day.
"Uh-huh. And how will this thing be powered? Where will we place it?" He took a deep puff of his cigar and tapped it out onto an ashtray overflowing with cinders.
"Heidegger suggested placing it near Rocket Town, but I think it might be more effective at Junon. After all, our main military force is stationed there, and we could build it its own Reactor under the water. Then those damn AVALANCHE fools won't suffer heart attacks...that's a loss, I assure you, sir."
"Yes...good idea, Scarlet. Yes, I think Junon will do nicely. And AVALANCHE...have SOLDIER try and find some of them...a public execution or two will keep them in line for a while..."
Scarlet perked up. She loved doing the public executions. Her favorite tactic was to gas the criminal with an extremely toxic substance that caused insanity and then death. Shin-Ra had seen the corpses. They were not pleasant to look upon, although the protests against his Mako Reactors were silenced for a short while, and then started up louder than before. Shin-Ra knew it was only a matter of time before those eco-terrorists did something severe, and hoped he could quell their screaming about how he was killing the Planet. Yes, it was only a matter of time...
Notes:
How nasty can Scarlet be? The racism fits her...I liked the way she whacks Tifa on Disc Two, but she's rather superficial except as mobile furniture...she's not a very good weapons designer, is she? Although the Sister ray was useful, none of her other creations were...the proud Clod was a disgrace! How can something defeat WEAPON if it can be destroyed by some rag-tag rebels?
Anyway, I'm pleased with Shin-Ra, I was in full swing that day and I think that this section is one of my best pieces of work. If they ever make a FFVII movie, if they did it with real people, the best person to do Shin-Ra would be the father on 'Titus'. He looks like the president and the character has the same vicious attitude......