All for Love

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Part 2: Chapter 2: All things Weird

In Midgar, the Shinra tower was anything but peaceful. Rumours about Nibelheim were flying around the building. Rufus had to wonder where some of the rumours had come from. One rumour going around was that a comet had landed smack bang on the town, crushing everything. Some rumours were closer to the truth, but so far Rufus had heard none that were actually true.

The said Vice President was walking towards the top floor of the tower, a scowl permanently etched on his face. He wasn't exactly happy with the idea of re-building Nibelheim, covering up the fact that Sephiroth had burnt it down. It wasn't as if it was Shinra's fault, Sephiroth had done this one on his own.

Rufus hated the fact that his father treated him like the little kid who knew nothing, the one who did nothing but get in the way. Slowly but surely, the company was breaking in half. One side who agreed with (or were too scared not to agree with) President Shinra, and a side that didn't. The side that didn't was seriously lacking in number.

President Shinra didn't have a secretary. He didn't really need one. Rufus was completely sure his father did nothing at all, he just let everyone else do the work for him. His office didn't even have a door, so it was easy to tell if the President was with anyone at the time or not.

The President was stood looking out the huge glass window of the room, a glass in one hand. The man never turned round when Rufus entered the room, but spoke.

"If this is about Nibelheim Rufus, I don't want to hear it."

Rufus wasn't surprise with the response.

"I still think what your doing is utterly stupid on your part." Rufus told him. "Give the blame to Sephiroth and keep it that way." Rufus was surprised at how calmly and off hand he had managed to talk, because he certainly wasn't feeling that way inside.

"You're still young Rufus. You wouldn't understand." His father told him.

"What wouldn't I understand?" The anger crept into his voice. President Shinra turned round to look at his son, a creepy smile on his face.

"Since General Sephiroth is dead, they can't take it out on him anymore. Instead they'll take it out on the company."

"That doesn't make any sense!" Rufus shouted. "What common sense is there in that!?"

"Angry people don't have common sense boy." Shinra said as if he was proving a point.

"You're insane you know that?" Rufus snapped as he left the room.

"So I've been told." The President said quietly, but Rufus still caught it. Rufus was tempted to go over and smack the man right in the face, but knew it would do him no good. Instead he gritted his teeth and stormed off.

Rufus didn't notice the person he nearly knocked over while storming away.

"Woah........ Hey Ruf, what's up?" Came the voice. Rufus looked up to see Adrienne looking at him.

"Nothing I can't handle." He replied.

"Ah." She said knowingly.

"Ah what?"

"You've been to see your old man."

"Got it in one." Rufus didn't feel as angry as he did a minute ago. "Where were you going anyway?"

"No where." She answered. "I'm just aimlessly roaming around the building. Why?"

A smile appeared on Rufus' face. "Want to do some investigating. I want to know what's in that reactor in Nibelheim."

Adrienne clasped her hands together. "Goodie, investigating. I love doing that. Just show the way stallion!"

"Stallion?" Rufus asked with a raised eye brow. Adrienne shrugged.

"Sounded good at the time." She said. Rufus laughed, dragging her off to the library on the sixty-second floor.

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Night time fell upon the small town of Nibelheim. The only life making themselves known were a few night-shift guards littering the entrance to the town. Reno stood peaking through the flaps of the tent he was stopping in, staring at the doors of the Shinra Mansion.

"Man does he ever come out of there?" He muttered to himself.

"Who?"

The voice made Reno jump, even though he knew the man was there. He turned round to see Reeve still staring at the blue prints that he'd been looking at for the past two hours.

"Hojo." Reno returned to looking through the flap again.

"Why you spying on Hojo?"

"Because he's up to something creepy."

"When isn't he?"

Reno looked at Reeve again.

"Ok, something more creepy than usual. He's hiding something in that basement. I went looking around earlier and he basically told me to piss off and it none of my business what was down there." Reno made an exasperated sigh and dug through his pockets for a cigarette.

"When isn't he all secretive about the things he does?"

"What's with all the when questions?" Reno asked. Reeve just shrugged, rolling up the last of the blue prints. Out of the corner of his eye, Reno caught a glimpse of white. He took a better look through the tent flaps. "Yes! He's leaving."

"What are you up to Reno?"

"Tseng told me to check out the basement. I can't exactly do that with scientist freak there." He looked at the executive. "And now you're gonna ask me why right? Tseng heard that the basement light had been on for days before you know what happened."

"So he thinks there's something down there?" Reeve asked. He went into thought for a while, pinching his nose. "There's a lab in that basement."

"I know that." Reno interrupted.

"Did you know it's something like twenty five years old. I know Hojo used to use it all that time ago, Heidegger told me."

Reno scowled.

"Fat twat. Never tells us fuck all." Reno stubbed the cigarette out on the ground. "I'm gonna go have a look."

"Be careful alright. Who knows what's down there."

"Yeah, yeah." Reno dismissed as he walked out the tent.

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"Why's the library full of useless crap?" Adrienne muttered as she flicked through what felt like the hundredth file she had read.

"No one likes throwing anything away." Rufus muttered absently, reading a file marked 'Nibelheim J-903, RT-905'. Adrienne threw the file she had on the floor.

"Looks like you've got something more interesting than me." She said in a bored tone.

"I have. The reactor blue prints." He said absently again.

"So you have what we're looking for and you never told me?" She said with a scowl.

"Yes." Rufus said amusement creeping into his voice, though Adrienne didn't notice it.

"How long have you had it?" She asked, liking the way Rufus was giving away information without really realising it.

"About an hour."

"You bastard!"

Rufus smirked.

"Why didn't you tell me!?" Adrienne demanded.

"Thought you was having fun looking through all those files." He said, smirk still on his face.

"Very funny. I'm laughing so much, I think my sides are going to split open." She said in a monotone voice. Suddenly interested in the file Rufus had, she forgave him, for now. "What does it tell you then?"

"Absolutely nothing." He said, dropping the file onto the floor.

"What?" Adrienne asked disbelievingly.

"Nothing! No fucking thing at all! There's blank spaces where there shouldn't be blank spaces." Rufus said angrily. "Something doesn't add up."

"You can say that again." Adrienne muttered.

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Reno once again made his way down the spiral staircase. The Turk had come to a conclusion that if Shinra had built a lab in this dump, it was hiding something that Hojo really didn't want people to know about.

A bat interrupted the peace. It flew past Reno's eye making him jump a little. As if he wasn't paranoid enough.

"Stupid freaky labs." He muttered as he came to a door at the bottom of the corridor. He opened the door slowly to reveal an empty lab. A rusty operating table laid in the middle of the room. The whole place looked like something from a really old (not to mention freaky) movie. The Turk took note of the shelves lined (or used to be lined) with books. Most of the said books were now on the floor, some of them still left open at certain pages.

Reno bent down and lifted the first book he found off the floor.

Jenova [alias Crisis of the Skies] - A what can only be described as an alien, found in the North Glacier in 903 by Professor W. Gast. No further information is available on the creature so far.....

"Where have I heard that word Jenova before....." Reno muttered to himself, picking up a file off the floor.

XX month XX day XXXX year. - The specimen is with child. Injections of Jenova cells will commence when the specimen is four months pregnant.

XX month XX day XXXX year. - First injection of Jenova cells complete. All critical signs are normal. Specimen is functioning normally.

"Freak." Reno muttered again, scanning through the file a little faster.

XX month XX day XXXX year. - Specimen went into Labour. Child is born with no side affects. All critical signs are normal. Mother has named the child Sephiroth.

"Shit. No wonder he freaked out...." Reno kept hold of the file and walked out the room swiftly. Little did he know, that behind a false wall in the basement laboratory, laid two men that were destined to become Hojo's new experiment.

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22nd March 2003. Had to update today to celebrate the fact that All for Love has been in the making for 5 months now! You can tell it was never my top priority can't you lol. The fact that Scars of the Past is 20000 words longer than this is at the moment and that only took me just over a month to write. The chapter is also a little bit longer than normal. Hope everyone is still reading!

If you didn't gather the two men are Cloud and Zack obviously. I needed a reason for them not to be in them pipes yet, since I couldn't Reno see them. Anyway I'm not really happy with this chapter, but it's the best it's gonna get so live with it. Me is no professional writer, the world would be doomed if I was.