Fountain of Memories
Chapter 5: The Terror From The Sky
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the FF7 chars (damn Square! They're always one step ahead……well several steps really…wow I've had too much sugar today) and I'm not getting any money from this.
Aurora awoke with a start and sat bolt upright in her bed. The sheets of the bed were tangled around her legs, and sweat was pouring from her. Her breaths came in ragged gasps, and she tried to calm herself. Getting up she staggered over to the bathroom. Yanking open the door she gaped at the scene that met her.
There was blood in the sink, and smeared on the floor. It looked as though someone had tried to clean themselves up after a particularly vicious fight. A huge sword was leaned against the wall. It was covered with blood to the hilt, and looked like it had recently been used to dice something meaty.
Aurora dived for the toilet and after spending several minutes being violently sick, she got to her feet unsteadily.
Who would do something like this? She thought to herself as she tried to rinse the sink using a flannel, and then used it on the floor. Not wishing to touch the sword, she prodded it into the shower where it was rinsed off by the water. Realising she too was now covered in blood, she pulled off the dress she had worn the previous night and shoved it into the shower, not really knowing what else to do with it.
She staggered over to the bed and sat down heavily. She still couldn't think why anyone would do this and leave that…mess in her bathroom. Someone must have come into her room while she was asleep! Aurora wrapped her arms around herself, suddenly feeling even more unsafe as she tucked her knees up to her chin.
After breathing deeply and trying to stay calm, she opened the door of the bathroom once more, and stepped inside to turn off the shower. Removing the sopping dress and bloody flannel she pushed them into the laundry chute, before returning to the shower. The sword gleamed silver in the weak sunlight from the window. Aurora frowned, this sword…she recognised it. A knock at the door caused her to jump away from the shower guiltily. Sliding the panel across, she shouted 'I'll be right there!' and pulled on some of the clothes that Tifa had given her, before running to the door.
* * *
Reeve picked up the loudly bleeping phone and held it to his ear.
'Yes?' He said, slightly impatiently.
'Sir! They've found a body in Professor Hojo's lab.' Said the voice of his secretary urgently.
Reeve shuddered in revulsion. They'd found lots of dead bodies in Hojo's lab when he'd first become President. All carefully preserved so that Hojo could do more experiments on them. 'I thought we'd removed all of Hojo's experiments.' He said.
'No sir, this isn't one of Hojo's specimens. It's the janitor, they've found him dead in his office.' Reeve heard the secretary swallow nervously, 'He was very dead sir. He'd been stabbed several times, and then…decapitated.'
'Tell the squad I'll be right down.' He snapped, and put the phone down. He stood and headed for the door, his frown deepening. Who would want to kill a janitor?
* * *
'…searched down here when Mr Tilles didn't show up for a meeting this morning. We found him like this.' The Turk pushed open the door to a small barely lit office, and then hastily stepped away, averting his eyes.
Reeve blanched. He had seen many horrific things while working with Cloud and the others as Cait Sith, chief of which was probably when he'd seen a helpless young woman killed before his eyes, but this was probably a close second. Trying to ignore the gore and concentrate on not emptying his stomach of its breakfast, he frowned at the stab wounds on the body. Actually, comparing these wounds with Aeris's…
He spun around hurriedly and glanced at the nearest Turk, 'Get Cloud and the others down here right now!' He snapped.
A few minutes later, Cloud and the rest were gathered near the office, talking with Reeve and the Turks. Yuffie was standing in one corner retching, while Vincent stood steadying her and talking to her in lowered tones which the others couldn't hear.
'That's definitely the work of the Masamune. I'd recognise the shape of those wounds anywhere.' Cloud said, tight-lipped and white faced.
Barret looked paler than normal, and kept shifting his gun-arm nervously, whilst Tifa had been leaning against a wall with her eyes closed, breathing deep, shuddering breaths, her fists clenched. Cid was stood next to Barret, his arms crossed and frowning while he muttered profanities under his breath. Red was calmly sitting up on his haunches. Reeve didn't think that he was being callous, he just couldn't read the face of a cat very well. He was pretty sure that the way Red's tail was glowing even fiercer than normal, and was being lashed around angrily behind him, was a sign that the big cat was pissed off.
His eyes came to rest on the white-blonde head of Aurora. Her face was almost chalk white, and her whole body was shaking slightly. She was swaying almost imperceptibly on the spot. Reeve immediately felt pity for the girl, and had an urge to go and put his arms around her shoulders to comfort her. She hadn't asked to be dragged from her quiet little island into a group of people who seemed to attract trouble like honey attracted bees. Her green eyes rose from their lowered state of staring at the floor, and met with his. He turned away quickly, and glanced at the others.
'How the hell did someone get hold of the *$"£@~&*% Masamune, Reeve?' Barret demanded.
Reeve shrugged, 'It was retrieved from the Crater after we defeated Sephiroth, and kept as a research piece.' He caught their accusatory stares, 'Well nobody but Sephiroth could use the damned thing remember?!'
'At least until now.' Tifa said quietly, not opening her eyes.
A Turk came up to Reeve and whispered something into his ear. The President seemed to sag visably, and he turned sadly to the others, 'Threre's no video footage of the crime.' He said, quietly, 'The Masamune was kept in the research labs near Hojo's old labs. There aren't any camera's in Hojo's lab-' He was cut off.
'Why aren't there any bloody camera's in there Reeve?' Cid snapped, at the President.
Reeve sighed, 'That's partly my fault. There were never any camera's in that area of the building when Hojo worked there because they were no good. The JENOVA specimen seems to interfere with the recording's, and so it was pointless to put cameras close to the place the thing was kept.' Reeve looked agonised for a moment, as if trying to decide whether to say something else or not. 'There's something else. There's a camera in the janitors office, but…the video tape is all scrambled.'
'So? What good is that to us?' Barret glaring at the dark haired President, his face still pale.
'Well, the only other thing that jams the cameras is someone with many JENOVA cells.' Reeve paused as the others all stared at him. 'Cloud and Vincent don't have enough cells to affect a video recording in that way.' He took a deep breath, 'In fact the only person ever to affect camera's in this way was -'
'Sephiroth…'Cloud said hoarsely.
* * *
Aurora ran back to her rooms at a run, trying to stop her heart from panicking. The person who had killed that guy had been in her room. Slamming through the door, she ran into the bathroom, and slid open the shower door ready to hand over the blade to Reeve, and tell him about what she had found.
'..They'll blame it on you …' A voice at the back of her mind said. It was almost like a normal thought, but it didn't seem quite right.
Aurora's heart clenched up in her chest. But surely Cloud and the others would know it wasn't her…They hardly know you, the small voice said, do you think they will protect you when it is obvious they were so angry at this crime? But I didn't do it…The weapon is in your room and you have no alibi. Blood on your dress….
Aurora stepped back from the shower and backed into the main room. Making sure the door was locked she flopped down onto her bed, and cried herself to sleep
Authors Note: I apologise for taking so long to post up the next chapter. My computer has been very ill over the last few months and it has nothing to do with AO-HelL… I mean AOL. I had to put the rating up coz of the gore and a bit of bad language. It might not be bad enough to warrant a higher rating, but it's better to be safe than banned from FF.net. Please R&R, and thanx for reading.LOL
PS. I have actually written up to about chapter 8, but I think I'll be really evil and see how many positive reviews I get before I post any more.