::Chapter Four - Only Speak the Truth::
Inside the now crippled Shinra Tower it was easy to see through various portions of the walls. The vehicles on the main floor were inoperable. Most were crushed with supports that held the now caved in floor above it. The stairway was barely accessible from inside the lobby, but wasn't damaged severely. There were various creatures roaming around the bottom floors, but none of those floors were passable by humans. The creatures had made their way in via the open window areas that had been shattered. The first passable floor opening was at floor number 55. The tired group made their way into the floor, closing the door behind them, and having it fall off. It was easy to tell that the building was of no use anymore. You could feel it sway in the gusts of wind, meaning its supports were slowly giving away.
Floor 55 held mainly offices, storage, and a snack bar. All of these things had been destroyed. Computer terminals were thrown all over various parts of the room. The snack machines that once said "Proud to work for Shinra!" lay on their sides, with their contents thrown about on the floor.
Barrett picked one of the still wrapped packages up. "Free food." He said, as he dangled it in his fingers at the other members. Everyone turned his or her head in disgust.
"Barrett, we're not in here for lunch." Tifa said, walking away from the snack area.
"Cloud, ain't you hungry? You been without a meal a while now." Barrett dangled the spicy chips in front of Cloud's face.
"No, and if you try to feed that to me, you can expect to get it vomited right back at you." Cloud said, following Tifa towards the stairwell. "Come on, let's go to the labs."
Everyone followed, heading up ten or so more floors, searching for the right room. It had been a while since they first broke into Shinra. Everyone broke off into single person parties and searched floors 60 through 69 looking for the right corridor.
Within a few minutes Barrett found the right floor, but wasn't sure which number it was. He called out to the other searching members before going in. "I think this is da right one. Does anyone got a flashlight?"
Cloud was the first to arrive where Barrett was standing. "No but I don't think it will be that bad. There's enough light coming in from outside." Cloud walked in slowly.
Inside the numberless floor there was barely a route that was passable by anyone. Debris, portions of the walls, glass, and other obstacles prevented anyone from going very far.
There were a few sections that were passable through crawling, in which Red was the first to attempt. "I found it!" He yelled from the other side of a blocked off wall.
"Found what!?" Cloud shouted from behind the barrier.
"I found Hojo's old testing area. Crawl over here and see it for yourself." Red replied.
Everyone began to make their way over to the other side of this barricade. Once everyone was over there a loud creaking noise could be heard as it echoed throughout the floor.
"Cloud, what was that?" Yuffie asked, fearing for her life.
"It's the supports to the floor. We don't have much time. I suggest we find whatever Red wants to find and get out of here." Cloud said, looking around at the ceiling above him.
Red hurried towards Hojo's desk. "Duly noted. All I need to find are his experiment reports on me, and Aerith, if you wish for me to get them." Cloud froze. Aerith? Hojo actually did tests on Aerith? He was inhuman as well as insane. Aerith wasn't his pet rat. He shook it off and sighed. "I, I guess. If you can find them, get them." There was more rattling from above and below. "Hurry Red. We're running out of.." Cloud stopped in the middle of his sentence. He saw Aerith in captivity inside of the tank that once held Jenova. "Aerith." He slowly walked up to the tank. It had been repaired, he noticed. The glass and door were fixed, or the whole tank had been replaced. He looked in on her. She was asleep, or perhaps unconscious. He put his hand up to the glass window. "Aerith. let me know how to help you." His vision of Aerith seemed more real than ever this time. She slowly seemed to awaken from the slumber she was in, looked at Cloud and smiled. Cloud had what appeared to be a smile on his face. "Aerith! You're.. alive, but how? Aerith?" Cloud looked at everyone else. They were looking at him as if he were an idiot.
Yuffie couldn't help but laugh. "Nice one, daydreamer, you just started a conversation with a wall."
Cloud looked back at where Aerith was, or rather, where she was not. "No. she was right here. She was RIGHT HERE, GODDAMNIT. What do these visions MEAN!?"
The creaking had become something more... The wind was entirely too strong, the supports were too weak, and the weight of the floors was too much. The tower had stood its final day.
Vincent was the first to notice the creaking change into a rumble. The tower was collapsing in on itself. "If everyone's done daydreaming, could we leave? I like being three- dimensional." Red handed the reports over to Cloud and crawled back through the only entrance. Everyone quickly passed back through the small hole and ran for the stairs.
"Quickly! I hear debris falling onto the floor above!" Vincent let everyone else pass as he ran back for his pistol.
"Vincent! What are you doing!? We'll buy a new one, forget that gun!" Cloud shouted as he ran.
Vincent ran back to try to catch the group. "Lucrecia gave me this gun. I'm not losing it!" He was about four floors behind everyone else when the top level started collapsing.
"Vincent, run faster, you must go faster!" Tifa shouted back as they reached the 35th floor. Vincent was back on the 41st floor, running as fast as possible. Above, floors 70-50 were collapsing. One by one, the floor above flattened each floor below. There were steel pillars falling through the center of the tower. One pillar stopped the fleeing crew for a minute, as it completely ripped away one wall surrounding the stairwell. It was easy to see the floors collapse now. There were only seconds left. 20, 18, 16, 14, the numbers seemed like they came hours after each other.
"Cloud! Vincent's back too far!!" Tifa shouted while running.
Cloud ran without looking back. "We don't have time! He'll make it, just run! We're almost there!"
A cloud of dust had engulfed where the Shinra Tower once stood. It was still collapsing, but there was no sight of it from the immediate area. Remaining aid workers fled back to the exit of Sector 5. There was a yell, a yell of pain, a shout of obscenity.
"Tifa! Cloud! Goddammit!" It was Vincent. He'd fallen on the platform that led from the 13th floor to the 14th.
Tifa started yelling. "Vincent! We have to go back for him! We can't leave him behind!"
Cloud pushed Tifa forward. "Vincent isn't going to make it, either ALL of us die in here, or we get out alive. NOW RUN!" Time seemed to flow like molasses. The remaining seconds until the crew reached the lobby felt like hours. One of them had been left behind to die. Die... Tifa thought. Was Vincent really alive in the first place? What is "die" If you're not actually alive? The remaining members fled out of the corridor that contained the stairs. They barely made it out of the lobby. There was no will to stop running; knowing the cloud of dust was directly behind them. The tower was completely collapsed now, and dust had reached as high as one could imagine. Tifa and Yuffie were screaming and running as fast as possible, while trying to keep close to one of the others. The exit was just ahead. By this time everyone was exhausted. Their running had become no more than a fast paced walk. As soon as they had reached the Sector 5 exit, everyone hit the ground. Not a single person moved.
Cloud removed his mask, and everyone else soon followed. He struggled for air at the same time as screaming, "Vincent!!!" The man with the gun was so intent on keeping his undying passion for Lucrecia; he was so vain to go back for that weapon. Tifa was crying. The mysterious Vincent gave his life for a material possession. The thought of it just seemed to be so SURREAL. It was unimaginable, even. Yuffie slowly crawled to her feet. Barrett was still, as well as Cid. Red XIII struggled to force the mask that was specially fitted for him off.
Cloud slowly stood up and looked at the two books he had gotten from Red. "We killed Vincent. We killed Vincent for this petty information!?"
Tifa comforted him. "Vincent made the choice to go back on his own. Why, Cloud? Why did he die for something so insignificant!?"
Cloud looked at the giant cloud of smoke. "I don't know."
A few minutes later a rescue crew arrived to their location to help them. One of them called out to the escapees. "Hello!? Is anyone alive!?" There was a faint yellow flashing light on the vehicle.
Cloud waved his arms; something he wasn't sure was worth it, and yelled. "Over here! We're by the Sector entrance!" The vehicle pulled near them and motioned for them to get in. Cloud hesitated.
Tifa looked at him and put her hand out. "C'mon Cloud, we don't have time!" Cloud backed off and ran back towards the entrance of the building.
Cid planted his dust-covered hand in his face. "Great, here he goes, playing hero again. Wait, did I just rub dirt all over my face? DAMMIT!"
Cloud had reached the location where Shinra tower's entrance once stood. He ran in to where the door was and made his way to the stairwell. He could see Vincent lying on the platform three or four stories above him. He headed for the platform, climbing various obstacles to get there. "Vincent!?" He shouted, trying to make his way closer to the fallen former Turk. He finally reached where Vincent lay. The Metal gauntlet that covered his deformed hand was gone, his hand was streaming with blood. Much of what he was wearing had been torn away. For the first time in years Vincent was plainly seen by looking eyes. He sputtered out a word or two, which didn't make any sense to cloud, before he finally spit out the words "Get out." He tried to point towards the ground, but couldn't move his arm in order to do so.
Cloud didn't move from where he was. "I'm here to get you out. Tifa and Yuffie they're crying out there."
Vincent tried to laugh, but ended up coming out more as a "meh."
Cloud removed debris from him and looked puzzled. "You're laughing at me? You're half dead and you're laughing at me?"
Vincent slowly moved his arm and brought the gun, still clasped in his hand, to his eyes. "Look what this gun did to me." Cloud removed the last of the debris and tried to lift Vincent off the ground. He had formed a somewhat large puddle of blood on the platform; it had begun to drip down below him. Slowly, cloud carried Vincent out of the stairwell to the other members waiting outside.
Yuffie let out a cry. "Cloud, you found him!" She ran toward Cloud. "How is he?"
Cloud kept walking. "He needs a hospital. Now."
Inside the now crippled Shinra Tower it was easy to see through various portions of the walls. The vehicles on the main floor were inoperable. Most were crushed with supports that held the now caved in floor above it. The stairway was barely accessible from inside the lobby, but wasn't damaged severely. There were various creatures roaming around the bottom floors, but none of those floors were passable by humans. The creatures had made their way in via the open window areas that had been shattered. The first passable floor opening was at floor number 55. The tired group made their way into the floor, closing the door behind them, and having it fall off. It was easy to tell that the building was of no use anymore. You could feel it sway in the gusts of wind, meaning its supports were slowly giving away.
Floor 55 held mainly offices, storage, and a snack bar. All of these things had been destroyed. Computer terminals were thrown all over various parts of the room. The snack machines that once said "Proud to work for Shinra!" lay on their sides, with their contents thrown about on the floor.
Barrett picked one of the still wrapped packages up. "Free food." He said, as he dangled it in his fingers at the other members. Everyone turned his or her head in disgust.
"Barrett, we're not in here for lunch." Tifa said, walking away from the snack area.
"Cloud, ain't you hungry? You been without a meal a while now." Barrett dangled the spicy chips in front of Cloud's face.
"No, and if you try to feed that to me, you can expect to get it vomited right back at you." Cloud said, following Tifa towards the stairwell. "Come on, let's go to the labs."
Everyone followed, heading up ten or so more floors, searching for the right room. It had been a while since they first broke into Shinra. Everyone broke off into single person parties and searched floors 60 through 69 looking for the right corridor.
Within a few minutes Barrett found the right floor, but wasn't sure which number it was. He called out to the other searching members before going in. "I think this is da right one. Does anyone got a flashlight?"
Cloud was the first to arrive where Barrett was standing. "No but I don't think it will be that bad. There's enough light coming in from outside." Cloud walked in slowly.
Inside the numberless floor there was barely a route that was passable by anyone. Debris, portions of the walls, glass, and other obstacles prevented anyone from going very far.
There were a few sections that were passable through crawling, in which Red was the first to attempt. "I found it!" He yelled from the other side of a blocked off wall.
"Found what!?" Cloud shouted from behind the barrier.
"I found Hojo's old testing area. Crawl over here and see it for yourself." Red replied.
Everyone began to make their way over to the other side of this barricade. Once everyone was over there a loud creaking noise could be heard as it echoed throughout the floor.
"Cloud, what was that?" Yuffie asked, fearing for her life.
"It's the supports to the floor. We don't have much time. I suggest we find whatever Red wants to find and get out of here." Cloud said, looking around at the ceiling above him.
Red hurried towards Hojo's desk. "Duly noted. All I need to find are his experiment reports on me, and Aerith, if you wish for me to get them." Cloud froze. Aerith? Hojo actually did tests on Aerith? He was inhuman as well as insane. Aerith wasn't his pet rat. He shook it off and sighed. "I, I guess. If you can find them, get them." There was more rattling from above and below. "Hurry Red. We're running out of.." Cloud stopped in the middle of his sentence. He saw Aerith in captivity inside of the tank that once held Jenova. "Aerith." He slowly walked up to the tank. It had been repaired, he noticed. The glass and door were fixed, or the whole tank had been replaced. He looked in on her. She was asleep, or perhaps unconscious. He put his hand up to the glass window. "Aerith. let me know how to help you." His vision of Aerith seemed more real than ever this time. She slowly seemed to awaken from the slumber she was in, looked at Cloud and smiled. Cloud had what appeared to be a smile on his face. "Aerith! You're.. alive, but how? Aerith?" Cloud looked at everyone else. They were looking at him as if he were an idiot.
Yuffie couldn't help but laugh. "Nice one, daydreamer, you just started a conversation with a wall."
Cloud looked back at where Aerith was, or rather, where she was not. "No. she was right here. She was RIGHT HERE, GODDAMNIT. What do these visions MEAN!?"
The creaking had become something more... The wind was entirely too strong, the supports were too weak, and the weight of the floors was too much. The tower had stood its final day.
Vincent was the first to notice the creaking change into a rumble. The tower was collapsing in on itself. "If everyone's done daydreaming, could we leave? I like being three- dimensional." Red handed the reports over to Cloud and crawled back through the only entrance. Everyone quickly passed back through the small hole and ran for the stairs.
"Quickly! I hear debris falling onto the floor above!" Vincent let everyone else pass as he ran back for his pistol.
"Vincent! What are you doing!? We'll buy a new one, forget that gun!" Cloud shouted as he ran.
Vincent ran back to try to catch the group. "Lucrecia gave me this gun. I'm not losing it!" He was about four floors behind everyone else when the top level started collapsing.
"Vincent, run faster, you must go faster!" Tifa shouted back as they reached the 35th floor. Vincent was back on the 41st floor, running as fast as possible. Above, floors 70-50 were collapsing. One by one, the floor above flattened each floor below. There were steel pillars falling through the center of the tower. One pillar stopped the fleeing crew for a minute, as it completely ripped away one wall surrounding the stairwell. It was easy to see the floors collapse now. There were only seconds left. 20, 18, 16, 14, the numbers seemed like they came hours after each other.
"Cloud! Vincent's back too far!!" Tifa shouted while running.
Cloud ran without looking back. "We don't have time! He'll make it, just run! We're almost there!"
A cloud of dust had engulfed where the Shinra Tower once stood. It was still collapsing, but there was no sight of it from the immediate area. Remaining aid workers fled back to the exit of Sector 5. There was a yell, a yell of pain, a shout of obscenity.
"Tifa! Cloud! Goddammit!" It was Vincent. He'd fallen on the platform that led from the 13th floor to the 14th.
Tifa started yelling. "Vincent! We have to go back for him! We can't leave him behind!"
Cloud pushed Tifa forward. "Vincent isn't going to make it, either ALL of us die in here, or we get out alive. NOW RUN!" Time seemed to flow like molasses. The remaining seconds until the crew reached the lobby felt like hours. One of them had been left behind to die. Die... Tifa thought. Was Vincent really alive in the first place? What is "die" If you're not actually alive? The remaining members fled out of the corridor that contained the stairs. They barely made it out of the lobby. There was no will to stop running; knowing the cloud of dust was directly behind them. The tower was completely collapsed now, and dust had reached as high as one could imagine. Tifa and Yuffie were screaming and running as fast as possible, while trying to keep close to one of the others. The exit was just ahead. By this time everyone was exhausted. Their running had become no more than a fast paced walk. As soon as they had reached the Sector 5 exit, everyone hit the ground. Not a single person moved.
Cloud removed his mask, and everyone else soon followed. He struggled for air at the same time as screaming, "Vincent!!!" The man with the gun was so intent on keeping his undying passion for Lucrecia; he was so vain to go back for that weapon. Tifa was crying. The mysterious Vincent gave his life for a material possession. The thought of it just seemed to be so SURREAL. It was unimaginable, even. Yuffie slowly crawled to her feet. Barrett was still, as well as Cid. Red XIII struggled to force the mask that was specially fitted for him off.
Cloud slowly stood up and looked at the two books he had gotten from Red. "We killed Vincent. We killed Vincent for this petty information!?"
Tifa comforted him. "Vincent made the choice to go back on his own. Why, Cloud? Why did he die for something so insignificant!?"
Cloud looked at the giant cloud of smoke. "I don't know."
A few minutes later a rescue crew arrived to their location to help them. One of them called out to the escapees. "Hello!? Is anyone alive!?" There was a faint yellow flashing light on the vehicle.
Cloud waved his arms; something he wasn't sure was worth it, and yelled. "Over here! We're by the Sector entrance!" The vehicle pulled near them and motioned for them to get in. Cloud hesitated.
Tifa looked at him and put her hand out. "C'mon Cloud, we don't have time!" Cloud backed off and ran back towards the entrance of the building.
Cid planted his dust-covered hand in his face. "Great, here he goes, playing hero again. Wait, did I just rub dirt all over my face? DAMMIT!"
Cloud had reached the location where Shinra tower's entrance once stood. He ran in to where the door was and made his way to the stairwell. He could see Vincent lying on the platform three or four stories above him. He headed for the platform, climbing various obstacles to get there. "Vincent!?" He shouted, trying to make his way closer to the fallen former Turk. He finally reached where Vincent lay. The Metal gauntlet that covered his deformed hand was gone, his hand was streaming with blood. Much of what he was wearing had been torn away. For the first time in years Vincent was plainly seen by looking eyes. He sputtered out a word or two, which didn't make any sense to cloud, before he finally spit out the words "Get out." He tried to point towards the ground, but couldn't move his arm in order to do so.
Cloud didn't move from where he was. "I'm here to get you out. Tifa and Yuffie they're crying out there."
Vincent tried to laugh, but ended up coming out more as a "meh."
Cloud removed debris from him and looked puzzled. "You're laughing at me? You're half dead and you're laughing at me?"
Vincent slowly moved his arm and brought the gun, still clasped in his hand, to his eyes. "Look what this gun did to me." Cloud removed the last of the debris and tried to lift Vincent off the ground. He had formed a somewhat large puddle of blood on the platform; it had begun to drip down below him. Slowly, cloud carried Vincent out of the stairwell to the other members waiting outside.
Yuffie let out a cry. "Cloud, you found him!" She ran toward Cloud. "How is he?"
Cloud kept walking. "He needs a hospital. Now."