::Chapter Three - Illusions in Ruins::
Dawn had arisen. The small campfires that had been constructed by various groups of aid workers are as useful as a used match could be at this point. The sun was just peeking over the still-smoking ruins of Midgar. Many of the temporary citizens were beginning to wake up. The crew of the Highwind was slowly crawling out of the aircraft's hold, just in time to see Cloud walk out of the Inn. He appeared rested, and free from delusions that had prevented him from sleeping earlier after Meteor. Tifa followed a few minutes later, looking as rested as Cloud. Meanwhile, everyone else looked as if they'd been woken up too early. Cid was drinking coffee he'd gotten from the pub. Barrett was drinking a morning mixture of what appeared to be coffee and butterscotch schnapps. Yuffie struggled to keep her eyes open, and appeared as intoxicated as Barrett was working on becoming. She could hardly stand, after being on the non-moving ground for so long.
Tifa looked at everyone waiting for her as she approached them. "Wow. Good morning to you as well." The ill-rested ones let out a slight mumble that one could have interpreted as 'go to hell.' Cloud took and used the towel, which was still lying on the floor inside the Highwind, to wipe off his sword. He decided a trip to the Weapons Shop was in order to fix the handle. He preferred to visit the weapon seller on the coast of the Western Continent, but the Kalm shop would do. He let everyone know where he was going and then headed off.
The hazardous material suits, or has-mat suits, as Barrett was calling them, were each picked to fit the crew of the Highwind that would travel to the Midgar ruins. A special one was required to be made for Red XIII, who wanted to explore the ruins of the 70-story Shinra Tower, in hopes he would discover anything about the experiments done on him. It was time to don these plastic suits, and cover their individual faces with masks. The remaining Mako in the air would be dangerous if inhaled in strong amounts. The filters placed inside the breathing apparatus blocked nearly every trace of toxic chemicals in the air at any given time.
Cloud returned just in time to dress himself up in the neon-yellow outfits. Cid looked at himself in the reflection off of the Highwind's cargo bay door. He looked at the yellow outfit and couldn't help but feel the tiniest bit of Déjà vu. He wasn't sure where he had experienced this before, but he knew it had happened. By this time everyone was ready to board the chocobo shuttles which carried workers between Kalm, Midgar, and Junon.
Cloud looked at everyone else in his or her suits and then stopped. "Do I really have to wear this thing? I was bathed in Mako, remember?"
Cid stopped and looked at Cloud. "Just wear the damn suit, kid. Okay? You don't know what's in that place anymore than I do."
Cloud shrugged and then continued walking. A few minutes later a round of chocobo shuttles had arrived. These transports looked exactly like the hovercraft given to Cloud for winning the chocobo race back at the Golden Saucer. The only obvious difference was the painted on "Chocobo Shuttles" logo on the sides.
Ten minutes or so later the shuttle dropped Cloud and the rest off at the Entrance to Sector 5. There was no need for a key anymore; the doors that sealed Midgar from the rest of the world were lying on the ground a few hundred yards away. Debris was scattered everywhere the instant the crews arrived inside the ill-fated sector. Portions of the upper plate of various sectors had found new homes at the base of sector 5. The Junon Cannon, removed from Junon to battle WEAPON, was dismantled from its makeshift stand and lay amongst the tons of concrete and steel. The crews were able to walk in and out of its barrel as they wished, but none ventured near the thing. Barrett looked around and envisioned everything in his head as it were - Midgar operating as a whole. He wanted AVALANCHE to win. He never expected their efforts would turn out like this.
Several aid workers rushed around in neon-yellow suits that matched the crew's. There were several people hauling out what appeared to be dead bodies which had been wrapped in cloth for fear someone would recognize one of them.
Cloud looked around and then looked at everyone else. "What are we doing here? This place is a war zone."
Red looked up to Cloud. "We're here to find survivors."
Cloud shrugged. "What about all these people already working? Aren't we just getting in the way?"
Cid looked at Cloud. "Dammit, kid, shut your word hole and look for either one of two things: surviving citizens, or creatures that we should kill." Cloud slung his sword over one shoulder and nodded.
Barrett saw what remained of the Sector 5/Sector 6 dividing wall and stopped in his tracks. "Goddamn, Meteor, no, goddamn Sephiroth jes didn't know when ta quit." Every couple of minutes a survivor would be found shaking, screaming, and more or less crying. The found were either protecting their children, or looking at a relative, either husband, wife, or child, who had died in the catastrophe. Even almost a day since the event many people were panicking, looking for missing family members. Some were trying to return to their homes in the slums to search for anything that hadn't been destroyed. The only sector where anyone could walk around in was sector 5, for most of its plate still stood. The reactor nearby had been turned off after the firing of Junon Cannon, and it had been knocked over.
Sector 6's upper plate was reachable by climbing a tall ladder up the side of the plate from the ground.
Cloud pointed ahead to a location the distance. "Look. Aerith's house." The neatly kept house was now covered in dirt, as well as portions of the sector wall, and also parts from the cannon's support structure. The weird glowing point which was immediately outside the doorway that Barrett kept calling a "Save point" was no longer glowing, nor remaining. Cloud walked up the one step that remained on the front of the house and reached for the door. It fell off as soon as he tried to open it.
Barrett looked frightened. He was worried about Marlene. "Is there anyone in there!? Is there!? Is Marlene safe!? Dammit Cloud, is she in there!?"
Cloud pushed Barrett back. "NO, BARRET, no one is in here! They fled before it happened. You seem so worried about it. What happened to the 'calm and cool' Barrett who knew Marlene was safe?"
Barrett scratched his head. "I jes, am worried, that's all. I saw those other kids, and got worried."
Tifa looked at Barrett. "Wow, Barrett has a compassionate side."
Barrett turned away. "Shut up, Tifa." Cloud was the first to walk in. He hesitated when he reached the staircase of the small dining area. He could remember how the stairs would creak when you'd walk too fast. Aerith hated that. Now there were only a few passable steps remaining. Cloud took in a deep breath, let it out, and started for the upstairs area.
A few minutes later everyone had made it upstairs. The air was filled with dust, Mako, and several other unidentified chemicals. Cloud walked in the room where he slept the night he stayed there. The bed was covered with rocks and metal that had come through the roof. Aerith's room was untouched, but for the thick layers of dirt that covered the floor and bed. Aerith's empty flower basket sat on a nightstand, to never be filled again. There was some Gil sitting in the bottom of the basket, Money she had collected from customers. Cloud saw that his money was in the basket. He knew it was his because he'd written "Fortune" on the back of it. Cloud walked out of the room and slowly closed the door behind him.
"What was in there?" Tifa asked.
Cloud looked at the ground. "Memories. Memories; that's all." Tifa looked at the now closed room and walked away. Cloud noticed an object on the floor near the doorway to Aerith's room. It had a small amount of shininess to it, but had been covered in so much filth it was hardly noticeable.
Cloud picked it up and looked at it. It seemed to be a piece of jewelry Aerith had removed sometime before they had first left Midgar. "Hold on, I think I've found something." He said as he brushed it off. It was a necklace that contained a photo. The photo was of Aerith and Cloud while on the Gondola at Golden Saucer. He slid the item in his pocket and walked to meet everyone else downstairs. The stair creaked before he'd reached it. He felt a gust of wind rush past him at that moment. He was sure it was nothing, and made his way back downstairs.
Cid looked at the deformed house and shook his head. "Goddammit. This was a nice house."
Barrett nodded. "Tch, WAS."
Cloud motioned for everyone else to follow him. "Come on, let's get out of here. There's nothing else here for me."
Red XIII stopped Cloud. "Wait a minute. We're going to the Shinra Tower."
Cloud shrugged and headed towards Sector 6's ladder. "We're probably not going to be able to get there from the ground. We might need the Highwind."
Red shook his head. "No, the workers have made a temporary pathway. We can use it to reach the Main entrance. From there, I'm unsure about it." Everyone looked at Red in disbelief.
Cloud scratched his head. "How the hell did you figure all this out?"
Red started towards the ladder. "I talked to some of the workers before the rest of you woke up. One of us had to be the Informed here, so I went ahead and took the liberty of doing so."
Yuffie walked up the ladder first while mumbling. No one could really make out what she was saying, but in her mind the words were: "Great, we've got a talking lion-thing that thinks he's Mr. Know-it-all." She turned back and smiled. "So how are we getting HIM up here? He can't exactly climb, you know."
Red recalled the time where he stood on two legs for several hours dressed as a navy officer, while being a stowaway on the ship to Costa del Sol. "If I can stand on two legs, I can climb." Red slowly began to climb the ladder, which was rather steep. He required help from everyone else, but it wasn't badly needed.
Sooner or later, everyone made his or her way up the ladder and onto the top of Sector 6's plate. The walk from the ladder to the front courtyard of the Shinra Tower wasn't very long. Essentially, everyone was walking on the wall that separated the two sectors of 5 and 6 apart. Every now and then there would be an area that was impassible, so a detour had been created. The detour ran on the top layer of Sector 6. From afar, the crew could see Reactor #4 had begun to produce flames. This caused worry, and many of the rescue aid evacuated. The few that didn't were either on their way out anyhow, or were inside the tower. By now everyone had reached the tower's doors. The side passageway that contained flights of emergency stairs was no more. It had been crushed in by massive weight. It had appeared as if the place had been bombed several times. The glass from the windows covered much of the concrete. A small passageway led to the only accessible door. The debris surrounding the interior and exterior of the building had permanently sealed the other doors.
The group looked up at the remaining floors of the building, and made their way in.
Dawn had arisen. The small campfires that had been constructed by various groups of aid workers are as useful as a used match could be at this point. The sun was just peeking over the still-smoking ruins of Midgar. Many of the temporary citizens were beginning to wake up. The crew of the Highwind was slowly crawling out of the aircraft's hold, just in time to see Cloud walk out of the Inn. He appeared rested, and free from delusions that had prevented him from sleeping earlier after Meteor. Tifa followed a few minutes later, looking as rested as Cloud. Meanwhile, everyone else looked as if they'd been woken up too early. Cid was drinking coffee he'd gotten from the pub. Barrett was drinking a morning mixture of what appeared to be coffee and butterscotch schnapps. Yuffie struggled to keep her eyes open, and appeared as intoxicated as Barrett was working on becoming. She could hardly stand, after being on the non-moving ground for so long.
Tifa looked at everyone waiting for her as she approached them. "Wow. Good morning to you as well." The ill-rested ones let out a slight mumble that one could have interpreted as 'go to hell.' Cloud took and used the towel, which was still lying on the floor inside the Highwind, to wipe off his sword. He decided a trip to the Weapons Shop was in order to fix the handle. He preferred to visit the weapon seller on the coast of the Western Continent, but the Kalm shop would do. He let everyone know where he was going and then headed off.
The hazardous material suits, or has-mat suits, as Barrett was calling them, were each picked to fit the crew of the Highwind that would travel to the Midgar ruins. A special one was required to be made for Red XIII, who wanted to explore the ruins of the 70-story Shinra Tower, in hopes he would discover anything about the experiments done on him. It was time to don these plastic suits, and cover their individual faces with masks. The remaining Mako in the air would be dangerous if inhaled in strong amounts. The filters placed inside the breathing apparatus blocked nearly every trace of toxic chemicals in the air at any given time.
Cloud returned just in time to dress himself up in the neon-yellow outfits. Cid looked at himself in the reflection off of the Highwind's cargo bay door. He looked at the yellow outfit and couldn't help but feel the tiniest bit of Déjà vu. He wasn't sure where he had experienced this before, but he knew it had happened. By this time everyone was ready to board the chocobo shuttles which carried workers between Kalm, Midgar, and Junon.
Cloud looked at everyone else in his or her suits and then stopped. "Do I really have to wear this thing? I was bathed in Mako, remember?"
Cid stopped and looked at Cloud. "Just wear the damn suit, kid. Okay? You don't know what's in that place anymore than I do."
Cloud shrugged and then continued walking. A few minutes later a round of chocobo shuttles had arrived. These transports looked exactly like the hovercraft given to Cloud for winning the chocobo race back at the Golden Saucer. The only obvious difference was the painted on "Chocobo Shuttles" logo on the sides.
Ten minutes or so later the shuttle dropped Cloud and the rest off at the Entrance to Sector 5. There was no need for a key anymore; the doors that sealed Midgar from the rest of the world were lying on the ground a few hundred yards away. Debris was scattered everywhere the instant the crews arrived inside the ill-fated sector. Portions of the upper plate of various sectors had found new homes at the base of sector 5. The Junon Cannon, removed from Junon to battle WEAPON, was dismantled from its makeshift stand and lay amongst the tons of concrete and steel. The crews were able to walk in and out of its barrel as they wished, but none ventured near the thing. Barrett looked around and envisioned everything in his head as it were - Midgar operating as a whole. He wanted AVALANCHE to win. He never expected their efforts would turn out like this.
Several aid workers rushed around in neon-yellow suits that matched the crew's. There were several people hauling out what appeared to be dead bodies which had been wrapped in cloth for fear someone would recognize one of them.
Cloud looked around and then looked at everyone else. "What are we doing here? This place is a war zone."
Red looked up to Cloud. "We're here to find survivors."
Cloud shrugged. "What about all these people already working? Aren't we just getting in the way?"
Cid looked at Cloud. "Dammit, kid, shut your word hole and look for either one of two things: surviving citizens, or creatures that we should kill." Cloud slung his sword over one shoulder and nodded.
Barrett saw what remained of the Sector 5/Sector 6 dividing wall and stopped in his tracks. "Goddamn, Meteor, no, goddamn Sephiroth jes didn't know when ta quit." Every couple of minutes a survivor would be found shaking, screaming, and more or less crying. The found were either protecting their children, or looking at a relative, either husband, wife, or child, who had died in the catastrophe. Even almost a day since the event many people were panicking, looking for missing family members. Some were trying to return to their homes in the slums to search for anything that hadn't been destroyed. The only sector where anyone could walk around in was sector 5, for most of its plate still stood. The reactor nearby had been turned off after the firing of Junon Cannon, and it had been knocked over.
Sector 6's upper plate was reachable by climbing a tall ladder up the side of the plate from the ground.
Cloud pointed ahead to a location the distance. "Look. Aerith's house." The neatly kept house was now covered in dirt, as well as portions of the sector wall, and also parts from the cannon's support structure. The weird glowing point which was immediately outside the doorway that Barrett kept calling a "Save point" was no longer glowing, nor remaining. Cloud walked up the one step that remained on the front of the house and reached for the door. It fell off as soon as he tried to open it.
Barrett looked frightened. He was worried about Marlene. "Is there anyone in there!? Is there!? Is Marlene safe!? Dammit Cloud, is she in there!?"
Cloud pushed Barrett back. "NO, BARRET, no one is in here! They fled before it happened. You seem so worried about it. What happened to the 'calm and cool' Barrett who knew Marlene was safe?"
Barrett scratched his head. "I jes, am worried, that's all. I saw those other kids, and got worried."
Tifa looked at Barrett. "Wow, Barrett has a compassionate side."
Barrett turned away. "Shut up, Tifa." Cloud was the first to walk in. He hesitated when he reached the staircase of the small dining area. He could remember how the stairs would creak when you'd walk too fast. Aerith hated that. Now there were only a few passable steps remaining. Cloud took in a deep breath, let it out, and started for the upstairs area.
A few minutes later everyone had made it upstairs. The air was filled with dust, Mako, and several other unidentified chemicals. Cloud walked in the room where he slept the night he stayed there. The bed was covered with rocks and metal that had come through the roof. Aerith's room was untouched, but for the thick layers of dirt that covered the floor and bed. Aerith's empty flower basket sat on a nightstand, to never be filled again. There was some Gil sitting in the bottom of the basket, Money she had collected from customers. Cloud saw that his money was in the basket. He knew it was his because he'd written "Fortune" on the back of it. Cloud walked out of the room and slowly closed the door behind him.
"What was in there?" Tifa asked.
Cloud looked at the ground. "Memories. Memories; that's all." Tifa looked at the now closed room and walked away. Cloud noticed an object on the floor near the doorway to Aerith's room. It had a small amount of shininess to it, but had been covered in so much filth it was hardly noticeable.
Cloud picked it up and looked at it. It seemed to be a piece of jewelry Aerith had removed sometime before they had first left Midgar. "Hold on, I think I've found something." He said as he brushed it off. It was a necklace that contained a photo. The photo was of Aerith and Cloud while on the Gondola at Golden Saucer. He slid the item in his pocket and walked to meet everyone else downstairs. The stair creaked before he'd reached it. He felt a gust of wind rush past him at that moment. He was sure it was nothing, and made his way back downstairs.
Cid looked at the deformed house and shook his head. "Goddammit. This was a nice house."
Barrett nodded. "Tch, WAS."
Cloud motioned for everyone else to follow him. "Come on, let's get out of here. There's nothing else here for me."
Red XIII stopped Cloud. "Wait a minute. We're going to the Shinra Tower."
Cloud shrugged and headed towards Sector 6's ladder. "We're probably not going to be able to get there from the ground. We might need the Highwind."
Red shook his head. "No, the workers have made a temporary pathway. We can use it to reach the Main entrance. From there, I'm unsure about it." Everyone looked at Red in disbelief.
Cloud scratched his head. "How the hell did you figure all this out?"
Red started towards the ladder. "I talked to some of the workers before the rest of you woke up. One of us had to be the Informed here, so I went ahead and took the liberty of doing so."
Yuffie walked up the ladder first while mumbling. No one could really make out what she was saying, but in her mind the words were: "Great, we've got a talking lion-thing that thinks he's Mr. Know-it-all." She turned back and smiled. "So how are we getting HIM up here? He can't exactly climb, you know."
Red recalled the time where he stood on two legs for several hours dressed as a navy officer, while being a stowaway on the ship to Costa del Sol. "If I can stand on two legs, I can climb." Red slowly began to climb the ladder, which was rather steep. He required help from everyone else, but it wasn't badly needed.
Sooner or later, everyone made his or her way up the ladder and onto the top of Sector 6's plate. The walk from the ladder to the front courtyard of the Shinra Tower wasn't very long. Essentially, everyone was walking on the wall that separated the two sectors of 5 and 6 apart. Every now and then there would be an area that was impassible, so a detour had been created. The detour ran on the top layer of Sector 6. From afar, the crew could see Reactor #4 had begun to produce flames. This caused worry, and many of the rescue aid evacuated. The few that didn't were either on their way out anyhow, or were inside the tower. By now everyone had reached the tower's doors. The side passageway that contained flights of emergency stairs was no more. It had been crushed in by massive weight. It had appeared as if the place had been bombed several times. The glass from the windows covered much of the concrete. A small passageway led to the only accessible door. The debris surrounding the interior and exterior of the building had permanently sealed the other doors.
The group looked up at the remaining floors of the building, and made their way in.