Reno of the Turks stood up on his feet, looking down with great triumph at the powerful bomb that he had just set once and for all, and since it could not be disarmed, then there was no way AVALANCHE would be able to stop it. The bomb was set to blow in twenty minutes, and it would be impossible for them to escape from the top of the Pillar and out of the Sector in time before it could be destroyed. AVALANCHE were doomed, and Shinra Incorporated had already won…
"(Ha, I'm really going to get a lot of money for this, I'll get a fortune from Shinra for accomplishing this mission! Damn it feels good to be a Turk. To cause all the chaos and destruction that you could ever wish for, and Shinra pay decent money to you for each one. After Tseng collects me from here in the other helicopter, I'll be getting out of this disaster area and heading back to safety where praise and fortune awaits! He'll come here before the bomb blows up the Pillar, but for now…while I'm waiting, I think I might as well have some fun with these three rebel losers. It'll be a nice warm-up, and if I keep them up here, it will ensure their own deaths,)" thought Reno, as he turned away from the bomb, and faced Cloud, Barret and Tifa, grinning wickedly at them, as they stared at the bomb in horror.
"Barret! Cloud! Come on, we've got to try and stop that bomb from blowing up this entire Pillar, now! There has to be some other way to stop this disaster from happening! Please, we have to do something!" shouted Tifa, desperately.
"Reno, just stop and disarm that bomb now, before it's too late! Don't go through with this plan, Reno, this isn't the right way to deal with us, and you know it! The whole Sector will get destroyed!" shouted Cloud, urgently. Reno yawned dully.
"Oh, but it is the right thing to do if Shinra want to deal with you all for good, because in this way, there's a complete guarantee that you'll all be dead, and it's the right thing to do, if the public wants to see an end to this 'terrorism' that you people have caused. Besides, even if I did have any second thoughts, which I don't, then you'll find that we're all too late to do a thing about it now. You see, once I push this button right here on the controls…" explained Reno, and to prove his point, he suddenly reached down and pressed a main red button on the control system. The control system of the Pillar had been deactivated now, and could not be turned back on to stop the bomb, which was still steadily reaching the end of its countdown.
"Then that's simply just all there is to it now, folks. Shinra's mission has been successfully accomplished, with the systems down, there's no possible way for any of you stop the bomb from exploding. Now I think it's about time that all of you will be dealt with, once this entire area is crushed, of course. So once again, it looks like the Turks are going to bring the whole house down, or in this case, this entire Sector!" said Reno, grinning in satisfaction. Cloud, Barret and Tifa gasped in horror.
"You damn heartless asshole of a monster! You're gonna end up killing all the many thousands of innocent people from the Slums and from above the Plate too, if you go through with this catastrophe, man!" yelled Barret, horrified.
"Yeah, and so what if I do, huh? You know what you're supposed do with garbage? Simple, you just put it away in a trash disposer. So just think of this plan here as Shinra's unique solution to disposing of all the garbage that dwells down here, rubbish and poor people alike. I know that you AVALANCHE people are a good deal stronger than you each look, but you're also far too late to stop Sector 7 from meeting it's doom. I'm going to put an permanent end to your terrorist ploys against the Shinra, right here and now," said Reno, coolly.
"You…you really just can't be that cruel. Don't you have any feelings AT ALL?" asked Tifa, sharply. Reno snorted at her.
"Well yeah, I mean come on, who really doesn't, good or bad? But if it comforts you to know this, then the truth is that I'm only really intent on doing this mission because it's my job, and the pay's gonna be really good for it. You see, the number one rule about the Turks is that they always get their missions done and dusted; no matter what the feelings they might have about it. That's the true pride and spirit of a Turk," said Reno, and it was clear he wasn't going to stop the bomb, and that he couldn't either. But Tifa refused to accept the fact that they had already lost to Shinra.
"I don't care what this Turk says, even if the bomb has been set, we still have to at least try to disarm it right now! We have to get to the system control panel, and try to stop it by ourselves! Cloud! Barret! Please, we just have to!" shouted Tifa, desperately, but neither of them answered, both knew glumly that there was no hope left. Reno sniggered, and raised his Nightstick in their direction, looking suddenly menacing.
"You people have already clearly lost out, so why not just accept it, already? If you really are going to try to disarm this bomb, however impossible it is, then I'm afraid that I just can't stand back here, and let you do it. I assure you all, no one ever gets in the way of Reno and the Turks of Shinra, and lives to tell about it. So you guys still want a fight here, for this doomed Pillar? Well, that's fine by me then. Let's do it, fight me now unless you ain't got the stomach for it," said Reno, darkly.
Cloud, Barret and Tifa all nodded to each other, and they all readied their weapons, with Cloud withdrawing his sword, Barret aiming his gun-arm, and Tifa raising her fists. Reno sneered at them all, before he suddenly sprang forwards and attacked them, and they had no choice but to fight back, as Reno charged at them with his deadly Nightstick held tightly in both his hands.
"Don't get cocky by the fact we outnumber him, I've seen Reno in action, and he did a number on me then! It's going to take everything we've got to deal with him!" warned Cloud.
Standing before the three of them on the top platform of the Pillar, Reno quickly raised his Nightstick, aiming it right at Barret, and he pressed a yellow button of the side of it. There was a bright flash of light, as a small, transparent pyramid suddenly appeared all around Barret, and it trapped him right inside it, just in the same way that a strong cage would trap someone.
Startled by this sudden strange technique that the Turk had just used with his Nightstick, Barret tried to break down the pyramid from inside of it, as he slammed his fist at its walls, but it had no effect at all, so then he tired to shoot it down with his gun-arm, but it was no use, as the bullets just seemed to dissolve on impact with the pyramid's transparent walls. Reno grinned as he watched Barret's futile attempts to escape the pyramid he'd set.
"By all means, try and break it down if you think can, but you'll find it quite impossible to do so in there. So how do you like my little pyramid then, huh? I designed it myself, with my Nightstick. And it's a rather effective technique of mine. The walls of it are using the very air inside the pyramid to set and harden themselves. You'll be dead in only a few minutes, as there will be no oxygen left inside there by then. It's invincible to break once it hardens completely. No one and nothing has ever broken out once it's set, believe me, I've used it enough times on enemies to know that pretty well. So say goodbye," said Reno, grinning menacingly.
Barret looked at Reno with shock and alarm at his words, and he immediately felt less air inside the pyramid, as though it was draining it out. Barret started to struggle to breathe, and he bashed against the sides of the pyramid, hoping to shatter it, but like before, it wouldn't even budge, and more air was then sucked out of the pyramid. Barret fell heavily to his knees inside the pyramid, panting and gasping painfully for breath as he was slowly suffocating.
Horrified as she saw that Barret was going to suffocate inside the pyramid unless he was freed from there now, Tifa saw that she had to act quickly to save Barret, so she decided to attack the pyramid from the outside, wondering if the outer wall of it was weaker than it was from the inside.
Determined to find out for sure, Tifa quickly ran up to the pyramid urgently, and she punched and kicked the outer walls of it hard, with all the strength she could muster, which was a good deal. Sure enough, the pyramid's walls were weaker from the outside, and the pyramid shattered into nothing as soon as Tifa had struck it, freeing Barret from it at once, as he was crouched on his knees gasping for breathe for a moment, then he stood back up, having recovered.
"Goddamn, that was a bad situation for a moment there, remind me never to hold my breath like that again. Thanks for that then, Tifa, looks like the walls of this cocky shit's little toy pyramid ain't nearly as tough as he made them out to be," said Barret, with a sneer at Reno.
Reno snarled furiously at the comment, angered that they had figured a way to escape his own pyramid technique, and no one had done that before, and because they had just figured it out, he would make them pay. Raising his Nightstick again, he pressed another button on the side of it, and at once, the Nightstick suddenly began to charge up rapidly, with sparks soon covering the whole weapon, as many volts of electricity quickly ran through it.
Cloud remembered back in the church what happened when Reno used the Nightstick on someone else when it was completely charged up, it had fired the person so horribly and effectively that Cloud couldn't even watch it as it took full effect, and as he saw Reno charge it up again, he knew that situation was going to get a whole lot tougher.
The Nightstick quickly finished charging up, electrical sparks flowing from it, as Reno charged forwards in Cloud's direction, preparing to lower the weapon down to strike.
Reno ran over to Cloud, who tried to leap back out of his way, but as soon as Reno neared him, the Turk swung his charged up Nightstick in his direction, and Cloud couldn't leap back out of the way enough in time, as Reno swung the fully charged-up weapon right at him, sparks flowing from it.
As a result of this, the Nightstick directly struck Cloud hard on the chest, while Reno charged it up with electricity at the same time, giving Cloud a rather big and nasty electric shock, as sparks flowed all around him. Cloud screamed in great agony at the sheer pain that surfaced through him at the touch of the electricity, it felt like it was much greater agony than anything he had yet experienced.
The high voltage on the Nightstick shocked his whole body, and then began to fry him completely, but then just as Cloud felt as though it was surely going to kill him, Reno suddenly drew back the Nightstick away from him, and then discharged it at once.
No longer being shocked, Cloud collapsed with a loud thud to the floor of the platform, and lay there motionless except for the fact he was shaking due to the shocks he had experienced, and he was too stunned and injured to get up for a while. Reno sneered down at the helpless form of Cloud as he stood over him, his Nightstick aimed down at him. Tifa began to frantically rush over to help Cloud, but Barret quickly grabbed her arm and stopped her.
"Barret, what are you doing, let go of me now! I have to go and help Cloud, now let me go!!" screamed Tifa, urgently; trying to frantically shake free of Barret's grasp, but Barret firmly shook his head.
"Stay back here for the moment, Tifa, and don't let him draw attention to us yet, it's best for all our sakes, including Cloud, trust me. This Turk strikes me as being way too cocky and careless for his own good, and when he lets his guard down here, that's when we're gonna strike. Ya got that?" questioned Barret. Tifa nodded slowly, but was still very worried.
"Come on, you pathetic loser, I know you've got way more strength in you than that, now get the hell up! Let's just see what they taught you back in SOLDIER, Mako eyes, show me just what you can do! Now get up and fight!!" yelled Reno, sneering at Cloud, kicking him hard in the side.
Cloud winced in pain slightly, but tightly gritted his teeth against it, and slowly got back up unsteadily to his feet on the platform, still shaking all over from the powerful electric shocks he had received, and he slowly turned to face Reno, who merely leered at him.
"Why didn't you just kill me off at that moment?" asked Cloud, sharply, and although he was certainly glad and relived that Reno hadn't done so, he still found it suspicious that the Turk wouldn't have disposed of him just then.
"Hey, do you really think that I'd end this little game of ours so very soon, and ruin my fun up here by doing so? Oh, no way, I've got a lot more things planned out here before Tseng arrives to get me, and believe me, they're all gonna be really painful ones for ya," said Reno, sniggering.
Although his whole body was still thoroughly injured, and despite the fact he was shaking from the shocks, Cloud slowly managed to stand up straight on his feet, and then without warning, hoping to catch Reno off guard, Cloud swung his sword right at the Turk in a flash, but Reno was prepared for it after all, as he deflected the sword blow with ease using his Nightstick, and it wasn't hard to do so, since Cloud's strength had been weakened by the shocks.
Reno raised his Nightstick and prepared to swing it at Cloud to strike him across the head, but before he could do so, Barret sprang into action, clutching a Materia equipped to his gun-arm, green light bursting from the floor at his feet as he did so. A bolt of lighting appeared from out of nowhere, and flew towards Reno, about to strike him, but surprisingly, Reno sprang around to face the bolt, and raised his Nightstick before him, so the bolt directly struck the Nightstick instead.
But then, to Cloud, Barret and Tifa's complete disbelief and amazement, the bolt vanished as the Nightstick suddenly seemed to absorb the lightning bolt, and then stored it away, charging the Nightstick with even more power, as many vast and powerful electrical sparks flew right from it. Reno grinned broadly at the sight of the others stunned faces.
"So how do you like this special added feature to my Nightstick? Pretty impressive, don't you think? It was specially designed by Shinra Incorporated to be not only electrically charged, but also store any electricity that touches it. Shinra do have that sort of technology, you know, this and much, MUCH more. And since I was the only one in Shinra who could fully master the Nightstick like this, it was given to me for special use. Anyhow, enough chitchat, let's get this show on the road," said Reno, coolly. Tifa's shocked expression faded, as she smirked confidently at Reno.
"Yeah, I've got to agree with you there, let's get the show of your defeat started!" declared Tifa, as she sprang forwards, and quickly clutched a Materia equipped to one of her fighting gloves, as it glowed brightly at once, and green light burst from the ground beneath her feet.
Reno actually looked rather startled indeed by her sudden optimistic confidence, and was caught completely off guard by the speed in which she summoned up the Materia spell as it came into effect at once, before he could react to it at all. Several cold and sharp icicles then came flying out of nowhere straight towards him, and Reno soon found himself being bombarded by them.
One of them ripped through his suit and grazed through his side as it sped at him, and a nasty cut was caused there at once, with blood going down it slightly. Other icicles had flew and shattered themselves directly against his chest, causing various scratches and marks to be spread across him at once, and then the icicles were all gone. Reno stumbled backwards quite a bit from their impact, his chest badly aching in pain.
Reno winced in clear pain from the attack, and he was thoroughly getting annoyed that he had to do so, and furious that he was hurt by the attack. Reno raised his Nightstick, and with a press of the button, he fully charged up his weapon for a moment, and electricity suddenly sparkled and erupted from it, and flowed around it like it had before.
But instead of striking Cloud with it, which would kill him if struck a second time by it, Reno ran quickly up to Barret, who had completely unexpected this, and could therefore do nothing to avoid the attack, as Reno struck him with his Nightstick, while he also charged it with electricity at the same time, giving Barret a big electric shock.
Barret yelled in agony at the pain that suddenly rushed through him instantly at the terrible shocks of the electricity, it felt extremely painful indeed as electrical volts ran painfully through his body, as the high voltage shocked him, and then began to fry him completely, but Reno suddenly drew back the Nightstick once again just before that could happen, and then discharged it at once. Barret collapsed heavily to the floor of the platform, feeling badly stunned by the attack.
Still a little stunned and shaking by his own experience of receiving an electric shock earlier, Cloud snarled angrily at the Turk who was gaining the upper hand on them, and Cloud quickly rushed forwards, and swung his sword right at him, hoping to catch him off guard, but Reno had been completely prepared for it, and deflected the sword blow at once, with his Nightstick again. Cloud cursed angrily in frustration as the attack failed, and Reno sneered. It seemed that no matter how hard they tried, he was prepared for almost their every move.
"Well, it doesn't look like you're all that tough after all, does it, Ex-SOLDIER? But then again, I should have already known that fact from the last time I kicked your ass, back in the church, you remember? You weren't in my league then, and it don't look like it now neither," said Reno, tauntingly.
But while he was gloating at currently having the upper hand over Cloud and the others, Reno was clearly getting very careless at the same time, and this was exactly what Barret Wallace had suspected would happen, and also that he had counted on. Having acted still and bided his time long enough, Barret sprang back to his feet on the floor of the platform in a flash, smirking as he saw the look of shock on Reno's face.
"WHAT!? But…but how!? Back there, I must surely have shocked enough electricity in you to leave you paralysed for hours with my Nightstick! How can you stand up still and look so unaffected like that!?" demanded Reno, looking very highly stunned, and there was a slight tone of fear in his voice.
"What, did I fool ya into thinking I had been down and out back there? Ha, your company's Airbuster robot fell for the same trick, to it's own downfall. Have you just forgotten what's in place of my right arm, huh? Well then, I'll just explain it to ya! My gun-arm runs by electricity as well, so when you shocked me just then, I shielded my gun-arm in front of me to absorb your own Nightstick's electricity into it, it's got that feature built in as well! And now you've got my gun-arm fully charged up, let me show ya just what it can do now! You ain't the only one here who can fire big shots!" yelled Barret, as he raised his fully charged-up gun-arm, and aimed it right at Reno's direction.
At that moment, Barret suddenly fired a big, orange ball of energy from his gun-arm, heading straight for Reno, who stared at in shock and fear, as he then tried to block it with his Nightstick, unable to avoid it in time, but the ball of energy was far too powerful for his defences, and it hit him hard in the stomach, knocking all the wind right out of him, and the ball of energy exploded as it stuck him, sending Reno flying in mid-air, over the edge of the top platform of the Pillar, a big trail of smoke coming from where he had been struck, and he had screamed in pain from the attack, and looked very alarmed as he saw that he was about to fall from the Pillar.
But then Reno quickly reached his hand out, and he just barely managed to grab the edge of the top platform only just in time to save himself, and he was barely able to pull himself back up onto the platform with his other hand, wincing with pain as he did so, since his stomach ached a lot now and felt rather injured, as it seemed that some of his ribs were broken and his chest looked rather singed. Feeling his body ache all over now, Reno stumbled away from the edge, cautious and careful not to fall over it.
But Reno then turned spun around on the spot only to suddenly find himself facing a fist right before it smashed right into his nose, breaking it at once, and causing blood to begin to flow from it.
Reno yelled in pain from the sudden impact, and saw that it was Tifa that stood in front of him and who had struck him, but she give him no chance to recover from the blow, as she quickly swung out her foot in a flash, and kicking him hard, right in the stomach.
Reno let out a rather painful groan at the strong impact, his stomach feeling even worse, but Tifa wasn't done yet, as she suddenly grasped him by the collar, pulled him close to her, and she smirked and winked mischievously at him, before she struck him hard across the face with her fist, and sent him flying backwards with a loud thud to the floor of the platform.
Blood dripping down his nose, and wheezing in pain as he clutched his stomach, Reno steadily got back to his feet on the floor of the top platform. Rage began to emerge within him, and it quickly consumed him, his blood boiling at the fact that he was now clearly beginning to lose, and get beaten up all of a sudden. And he was even being toyed with.
"You guys think you can beat me!? Fine then, but you're all going to have to feel the full force of my wrath!! How about doing that facing off against a Hyper Neo Turk Light!" shouted Reno, enraged, as he charged his Nightstick to full power, and a big circle of red energy formed from its tip.
Cloud and the others knew that this definitely wasn't good at all, as red light erupted around the whole Nightstick, and began to form into much larger meteors of energy than the other ones. At once, Cloud, Barret, and Tifa tried to get out of the way of the attack, running at the other side of the pole of the Pillar, opposite Reno, who then fired three meteors of energy from his Nightstick in a huge flash of red light that shone around the whole top part of the Pillar.
Because they had gone behind the pole of the Pillar opposite where Reno was, they were safe from being struck and killed instantly by the big red meteors of energy that Reno had fired from his Nightstick. They struck the pole of the Pillar that they were hiding behind instead, and exploded against it in a flash of red light.
But Cloud, Barret and Tifa looked up and noticed in horror that cracks suddenly started to spread from that point of impact, and were going across it to the top of the Pillar itself. Some small parts of the structure crumbled from it at once from the cracks that had formed in the top part of the Pillar due to Reno's attack, but the top of the Pillar still stayed intact for the most part, though it was now covered with cracks.
"Whoops, looks like I overdid it just a little then, huh? I mean, I wouldn't want to blow up the Pillar now, not when I've got the bomb to do the job for me, and I don't want to be crushed like a pancake neither. That's the fate of you all, not mine," said Reno, with a smirk of renewed confidence.
"(Whoa, what power…that must have been his strongest attack that he had just used, we must have been getting the guy really furious and desperate if he just used an attack of that sort of power. I don't think we've got to worry about anything like that now, but this Turk is still very dangerous, we better be cautious against him,)" thought Cloud.
Looking at each other and nodded pointedly as though sending each other a quick signal, they all suddenly sprang out from hiding, and charged right towards Reno.
Barret was the one who reached and attacked Reno first, as he raised his gun-arm, and aimed it right at Reno, before opening fire on him. Reno quickly sprang to the side out of the way of the line of fire, and he went to run behind the pole of the Pillar on the other side for cover.
But Barret didn't give him the chance, as he quickly fired his gun again, and his bullets managed to hit Reno directly in the arm before he could get himself fully behind the pole of the Pillar, as he ran behind it just after his arm had been shot at that moment.
Reno yelled out in extreme pain and agony, barely able to stand up on his feet, as he clutched his arm in pain from his bullets wounds, and the blood already flowing from his shot wounds in his arm was staining his Turk uniform.
Getting very angry and murderous as he noticed this, Reno sprang out from behind the pole of the Pillar, and he quickly ran up to Barret to gain revenge against him. He knew the electricity wouldn't work, so he did the next best thing with his weapon, and struck Barret with a loud thud across the head with his Nightstick.
Barret let out a cry of surprise from the strong blow of force, as he stumbled dazedly from the impact, and nearly fell onto the floor of the platform, but he was just able to stand his ground, although his head ached and hurt badly, and he felt dizzy for a while, as he swayed, before falling to the floor.
Cloud then reached Reno, as he swung his sword right at him in a flash, but Reno spun around to face him, and he deflected the blow with his Nightstick once again, sending Cloud stumbling backwards slightly as a result.
"Haven't you already figured out the fact that trying to attack me with your sword clearly isn't working?" asked Reno, with a triumphant smirk, despite pain flaring from him.
"That's exactly why I planned to improvise," replied Cloud, coolly, and before Reno could react, Cloud swung his foot out and kicked him hard in the stomach with a thud to the floor.
"You dirty…" began Reno, with an angry snarl as he stood back up on his feet, but he was suddenly interrupted as Tifa had suddenly struck him from behind, hitting him hard across the back of his head, with both of her fists clenched tightly together as she struck him. Reno fell hard, face first, to the floor of the platform, screaming in agony as his face and his broken, bloody nose struck the floor, and the back of his head ached quite painfully as well from where it had been struck.
Rage boiling and surfacing within him as he realized that Cloud and the others had already gained the upper hand on him once again, Reno sprang back up onto his feet, ducking his head, and a fist blow from Tifa passed harmlessly over him as a result of this. He glared daggers at them, and then raised his Nightstick, charging it up to full electricity once again.
Reno then ran over to Cloud, who luckily seemed to have recovered from the first series of electric shocks, but he was still very alarmed, as Reno swung his charged up Nightstick in his direction, and Cloud couldn't get back out of the way in time, as Reno swung the fully charged-up weapon right at him, sparks flowing from it.
The fully charged-up Nightstick directly struck Cloud hard once again, giving Cloud a rather big and quite nasty electric shock. Cloud screamed in great agony as pain flared all the way though his body, getting simply unbearable.
The electrical volts on the Nightstick shocked his whole body, and then began to fry him completely, but then just as the attack was going to kill him, Reno suddenly drew back the Nightstick away from him just in time, and then he discharged his deadly weapon at once.
Cloud collapsed to the floor, his trails of smoke coming from his whole body, which hurt and ached badly as he lay there on the floor of the platform, unable to get back up to his feet in his agony. Barret stumbled over to Cloud with some clear dizziness, as he swayed a lot, before finally standing over Cloud, holding his own badly aching head.
Green light then burst from the ground at Barret's feet, as he reached down and tightly clutched a Materia equipped to his gun-arm, and it glowed brightly at once. Some magical blue-white energy suddenly appeared out of nowhere towards them, summoned forth by the Materia, and it touched both Barret's and Cloud's whole bodies, vanishing as soon as it did so, and their injuries were fully healed as a result, and they were back again to full strength.
"Thanks a lot for that, Barret. For just a moment there, I thought I had really been completely fired by those electric shocks the last time, I might not have made it through it this time," said Cloud, as he stood back up onto his feet. Barret simply just shrugged, his own severe headache also gone.
"No problem, I think you and I both really needed that Cure spell from my Restore Materia, but have you noticed yet that so far that Turk's not even made any move at all to attack Tifa? Kinda strange, don't you think so?" questioned Barret, looking perplexed.
"Yeah, strange…" muttered Cloud, darkly, feeling intense rage flare up within him towards Reno, as he realized that Barret was indeed right, but this time, the rage seemed more closely linked with a feeling of jealously, though he would not have admitted it. Reno glared darkly at them, at the fact that they had recovered from his attacks, before a dangerous smirk spread across his beaten and bloody face.
"You know, now that you mention it, I don't think I have attacked your little girlfriend yet, have I? Well, we'll just have to change that, won't we?" said Reno, with a nasty grin, and suddenly, he then pressed the yellow button on the side of his Nightstick, and another transparent pyramid appeared, but this time it was around Tifa, and at once, it had taken its full and deadly effect.
Tifa quickly sank to her knees inside the pyramid as the air then began to go out of it faster than ever, and soon she had collapsed entirely inside of it, gasping heavily for breath.
Remembering how Tifa had saved him from the pyramid earlier, Barret quickly raised his gun-arm, and fired at the outer walls of the pyramid, but to his disbelief, the pyramid still stayed up, the bullets shattering on impact with the wall.
"Ha, this pyramid's not like the last one, you know! This one's got even stronger walls than ever, which means that not only can it not be destroyed from the inside, but it can't even get damaged from the outside of it neither!" said Reno, with a leer, watching as Tifa was clearly suffocating to death inside the pyramid, and would die in only another minute.
Feeling alarmed and overwhelmingly enraged by what was happening, Cloud suddenly charged up to Reno, with a bellow of anger, as he raised his sword, and swung it even harder at Reno, and the sword slash was so quick and strong this time that Reno was completely taken off guard by it, and barely brought up his Nightstick before him in defence.
Reno received an absolute shock, however. This time the Nightstick didn't deflect the blow and knock the sword away, but instead, the sword completely slashed right through the Nightstick and cut it in half, and the blade also cut through Reno's uniform at his chest, as it made a nasty but not deep cut through his chest, blood going down it slightly at once.
Reno screamed in agony, and stepped backwards from Cloud and the others in pain, dropping the two broken halves of the Nightstick to the floor of the top platform of the Pillar, and all the effects of the Nightstick had now been rendered useless as it was destroyed. The pyramid surrounding Tifa shattered all around her at once, and Tifa was then freed, as she gasped and panted heavily for air, before getting back up to her feet.
Reno was now clearly in a bad condition now, as he had a broken and bleeding nose, had been punched and hit in the face a few times, had a bad headache at the back of his head, had some broken ribs, a burnt and singed chest with several cuts over it due to the icicles and the sword slash from Cloud, and had a wounded arm that had been shot, and other bruises.
"Well Reno, it looks like you've clearly lost out against us here, doesn't it? Without your Nightstick, you can't even hope to defend yourself from our attacks; I know that's where all your threats come from. So now it looks as though we really are in a different league altogether, doesn't it? Though not quite like you had in mind," said Cloud, coolly, and both Barret and Tifa then sniggered before bursting into laughter at that last comment of Cloud's, knowing that they'd definitely won.
Feeling completely enraged and humiliated, Reno glared viciously at them all, but didn't make any move to attack, he knew that they were right. Now that his Nightstick had been destroyed, there was no way he could hope to win or even survive against them in a fight. Cloud threateningly raised his sword, Barret aimed his gun-arm, and Tifa clenched her fists, all of them ready to finish him at any moment's notice.
Reno wasn't a coward, but he was no fool either, and he believed that only fools sacrificed themselves for their jobs, just like those other AVALANCHE rebels had. Reno saw that the others clearly had the upper hand over him now, and that he was outnumbered too, so that meant only one thing; that it was time to surrender the fight and retreat.
Utterly lived and disgraced, Reno cast a look around the area, checking for any excuse to leave without making it seem like a cowardly retreat, and felt relief as he spotted the bomb on the system controls, and noticed that it would only be a few minutes now before the Pillar exploded. He turned to face Cloud and the others, glaring hard at them.
"As must as I'd like to stay and continue our little game, AVALANCHE, I'm afraid that it's time for me to leave here with my life. Have you three already forgotten the Pillar will explode at any moment, and that you can't possibly do anything to stop it, or get away from here in time to avoid being crushed? You may have won the battle, but here and now, you've lost the war, and Shinra will be the real victors in the end," said Reno, with a grin. That certainly wiped the smiles off their faces.
Reno's grin widened as he heard the sound of helicopter blades coming closer and closer, and knew that Tseng had finally arrived in the area of Sector 7 at last. With a mock bow to Cloud and the others, Reno suddenly fled away from them, as the Shinra helicopter arrived and hovered before the top platform with the side door open. Reno leapt inside through the door, despite the vast and painful injuries he had received in the fight, and the door then shut, and the helicopter flew away from the top platform.
As soon as Reno had left the platform, Tifa immediately ran over to the system controls of the Pillar to desperately try and find a way to disarm the bomb, however hopeless their situation seemed, they had to try. Cloud rushed over to her to help her disarm the bomb, and looked closely at the bomb's programming systems. Barret also rushed over to there, and stared down at the deadly device.
"DAMN IT! It's a bomb that works by a timer, and the time on it's gonna go down all too soon now! There's no damn way we can stop it in time to save us or this whole place!" shouted Barret, alarmed.
"We're not going to give up, I refuse to believe that this is the end of Sector 7, it's been my home for the last few years, and I won't let it die, or any of us either! Cloud, please help, I don't how to stop this bomb; I don't have any experience with this sort of thing! Come on, you're a mercenary who's supposed to be experience at various things, so just try it now at the very least!" cried Tifa, desperately. Cloud crouched down before the bomb, checking its settings as its timer went down, but he sighed heavily and shook his head hopelessly in defeat.
"Reno was right all along, he wasn't bluffing about this at all, it really is impossible to prevent this bomb exploding once its set. This isn't a normal time bomb mechanism that we can just disarm whenever we feel like it. Shinra have specially made it themselves just for this purpose here and now, and it's far too technologically advanced for us to stop it," said Cloud, numbly.
"(We're all going to die here…we're all going to get killed after all. Shinra Incorporated will have their wish…all of the AVALANCHE rebel group will be dead because of this plan just like they had hoped…this time there really is nothing we can do to prevent us from being killed…I've had so many close calls and escapes from death already…but this time…this time all of us are done for…)" thought Cloud, in defeat, as fear and panic soon began to fill him as he realized he and the others would be killed soon, and there was nothing they could do about it.
Suddenly, the same Shinra helicopter that had taken Reno to safety had arrived in their area once again, and it hovered nearby them, its side door open in their direction, as someone wearing a Turks uniform suit stepped out and stood on the side platform of the helicopter. But it wasn't Reno who was standing there on the side platform of the copter, it was Tseng.
"Ah, I see that the bomb is getting ever closer to reaching its final countdown, yes it won't be long now, and I'm sure that you rebel scum have already figured out that your efforts to stop the bomb are wasted ones. If you know that, then you'd be right about it, you'll truly have a hard and frustrating time trying to disarm that bomb. And it won't do you any good to mess with those controls either, it would just make your situation a whole lot worse. You see, if you try to get into its systems too deeply, then it's designed to blow the second that some stupid jerk touches it, and dares to tempt fate," said Tseng, icily.
"Please, as the official leader of the Turks, there has to be something that you can do to stop this bomb from exploding, so please disarm it now! We'll give up right now, without any fuss or trouble, and just hand ourselves in to Shinra, just save all the people living here in Sector 7, don't let them all die like this just because we're in here!" screamed Tifa, desperately.
"(There has to be a way to save Sector 7, there just has to be! Surely there's always a chance to accomplish something whatever it is, and there has to be a way now, there just has to be!)" thought Tifa, with despair. Tseng laughed scornfully.
"Oh, how very touching and becoming of 'terrorists' to care for the safety of the people, but I'm not interested in any heroic deeds right now, so I think I'll just leave the bomb as it is. And besides, only a Shinra Incorporated upper class executive can set up or disarm the bomb that will destroy the Pillar, and the support of the section of the Plate from above. Anyone else who tries to stop the bomb goes backwards in progress rather than getting anywhere forward at all. Do any of you three see that fact yet? You've clearly tried to meddle with the bomb, and all it's ended up doing is just speeding up the countdown," said Tseng, coolly. Looking at the timer, they saw that Tseng was right. The bomb was counting down much faster now.
"You damn rotten bastard!! You just shut your hole, or I'll shut it for ya!" snapped Barret, as he started firing at Tseng with his gun-arm, but he was so angry and furious that he wasn't really aiming or concentrating, and all his shots were missing and were way off target as a result, not even hitting the Shinra helicopter. Tseng yawned dully, rather indifferent.
"You know, I really wouldn't try anything like that, so I suggest you stop firing at once. You see, if you keep trying, however poorly, to shoot this copter down…then you might just make me badly injure our special little guest, who's gladly agreed to come with us at last," said Tseng, calmly.
Barret felt utterly bewildered by the Turk's comment, not knowing what it meant at all, but Cloud felt a sudden and nasty suspicion surface in his mind, with a feeling of intense dread at the realization. Tseng sneered, and reached down into the inside of the copter, and forcefully pulled someone out of it to crouch beside him on the side platform of the copter. To Cloud's horror and alarm, it was Aeris that came into view beside Tseng, her head bowed rather sadly.
Seeing the horrified and completely enraged expression that was quickly emerging on Cloud's face, as well as Tifa's rather worried and anxious look, Barret quickly stopped firing his gun-arm, looking on puzzled, as Tifa frantically shouted out.
"AERIS!!" shouted Tifa, frantically, sounding very worried and concerned about her indeed. Tseng raised an eyebrow, and glanced down at Aeris, before looking back at Tifa.
"Oh, so you two do really know each other, then? Reports that we've received recently suggested that fact to us, but now I guess it's confirmed. How very nice it is then…that you could see each other for one last time, before you all meet your rather crushing end. You know, you really should thank me, I think I've done you all quite a favour here," said Tseng. Cloud snarled at him, his fists tightly clenched as boiling anger began to fill him entirely, as he began to erupt with fury.
"What the hell are you and Shinra planning to do with Aeris!? Why have you and your men been after her for so long, and why have you all been so desperate to capture her!? What do you intend to do with Aeris!? ANSWER ME!!" demanded Cloud, enraged, his fists clenched tightly, as he glared hard and coldly at Tseng.
Aeris slowly raised her head to look at Cloud, and smiled at him slightly, a tear sliding down her face as she stared at him, and he stared back worryingly at her. Tseng raised an eyebrow at Cloud's enraged reaction, and shrugged indifferently.
"I haven't decided what needs to be done with her yet. It isn't my decision, after all, it's all up to my peers to decide the fate of her. The orders that me and the Turks received from Shinra were simply to find and catch the last remaining Ancient, and to take her alive at all costs. It's taken us a very long time to accomplish this task, fifteen years in fact, but now I can finally report this success to the President. He will be very, very pleased indeed. To have the Ancient finally in his grasp at the very same day his only real threats and enemies are dealt with…quite a day for him indeed," said Tseng, with a snigger.
"Ancient…?" mouthed Cloud, his eyes flaring wide with shock at what he had just heard, and he simply just stared numbly at Aeris, who nodded her head slightly. Tifa was also staring at her, and even Barret seemed stunned.
"What…she didn't tell any of you at all? She told you nothing about her heritage, about what she really IS? Ah well now, Aeris, that really won't do, now will it? Since you've been around her longest, I'll direct this question to you, Ex-SOLDIER. During the time you've travelled with her, haven't you ever wondered how she can do all the things she can do? Oh, I'm sure you have, and I'm sure you've been unable to stop. I would tell you more, of course, but since you're all about to die anyway, it think it hardly matters. As I've said, the Shinra will be quite pleased to have her in their grasp, VERY pleased indeed," said Tseng, with a dark grin.
"Don't you even DARE touch Aeris, or I'll hunt you down and kill you! Touch her, and I swear, I'll kill you, no matter where you're hiding away!" roared Cloud, livid with rage. Tseng simply shrugged, and simply looked bored and unconcerned by Cloud's murderous threat.
"You know, instead of just standing there and threatening me like some sort of lunatic, you lot might want to think more about your own situation. The bomb will explode in less than two minutes now, and there's no way any of you will be able to escape the Pillar's destruction in time. And then the Plate will fall and crush you all," said Tseng. Tifa ignored him, and looked at Aeris, speaking to her in a tone of voice filled with concern.
"Aeris, are you going to be okay?" asked Tifa, frantic with worry and anxiety for her. Aeris' eyes flared wide as she then remembered something, and she leaned over the side platform of the helicopter to make herself heard as she spoke.
"Tifa, don't worry! She's alright, I've already taken her to safety!" shouted Aeris, urgently.
Noticing this, Tseng snarled angrily with clear anger, and he suddenly threw his hand back, and slapped her hard across her face with a loud smacking sound. Aeris rocked backwards from the blow, slamming back against the side of the copter, and she then fell silent, wincing in pain as her cheek ached badly from the blow.
"The deal we made here was that you may NOT speak to them about anything whatsoever, now just shut up and keep quiet," hissed Tseng, sharply, an edge of venom to his tone of voice, and then he quickly regained his composure and calmed down. Cloud glared murderously at Tseng, in a look that quite clearly said he wanted to cleave him into shreds with his sword, and Tifa cried out to Aeris in anxiety.
"Aeris!!" shouted Tifa, worried and concerned. Aeris shook her head at her quickly, and shouted urgently at them all, not caring if Tseng hit her again or not.
"All of you, don't worry about me! Just hurry, and get yourselves out of here right now, before the Pillar explodes, flee for your lives, please!" screamed Aeris, frantically. Tseng merely sniggered at them.
"Oh come on now, when will you people learn that there is no time or hope for any of you to escape this place? It's already far too late, you're all going to get crushed to death, right here and right now. Well anyway, I think that the bomb should be starting any time now, so I'll conclude our little discussion here, while I escape to safety, and leave you three to your grisly deaths. Or do you still dare to fool yourselves into thinking that you can escape in time?" asked Tseng, sniggering coldly at them as if he very seriously doubted it, and they all did too. Aeris stared at them all in alarm and frantic concern, before Tseng hurled her forcefully back inside the copter, and closed the door behind him after he went inside too.
The Shinra helicopter then flew off, as the bomb was now only a minute from exploding, to the alarm and intense fear of Cloud and the others. As if they had enough to worry about, the top part of the Pillar suddenly started to crumble and crack apart slightly, as the cracks that Reno had caused to it earlier began to spread across it, and crumble some of the parts away from it. All around Cloud and the others, dust began to fill the air as chunks of concrete were sent dropping to the dirt far below from the cracks that had split them off.
But even as the cracks that Reno inflicted to the top part of the Pillar began to cause some chunks of it to crumble away, the real danger was still the bomb, as it counted down to only thirty seconds left until the Pillar would explode entirely.
Barret let out a string of curses, and looked around for any other exit that would get them out the Sector; as the whole set of stairs had at that moment been demolished by a large chunk of concrete that had cracked and fell from the Pillar.
Looking around frantically, Barret suddenly noticed a large wire hooked onto the edge of the platform, and looking up, Barret saw that it was tied tightly onto the section of the Plate that was above Sector 6, beside the part that was soon going to fall. With a sense of relief and triumph, Barret quickly grabbed the wire, and held on tightly to it, and he saw that it was tied tightly onto the other section Plate so it would not come loose if he and the others swung on it. Barret jumped towards the edge of the platform with the wire in his hands.
"(If me, Tifa, and Cloud jump off from the top platform here, all of us holding on tightly to each other and this wire, then we should be able to swing all the way down from here to the area of Sector 6 just outside the gate of Sector 7, right before the Pillar blows up. We'll escape with our lives intact, but all the people here…there's nothing we can do to save them now, we can't stop the bomb. Damn Shinra, I'll make them all pay for this, I bloody well swear it, but right now we gotta get out of here,)" thought Barret, as he shouted to the others.
"Hey, Cloud, Tifa, we can all use this wire to get out of this place right now, before it gets destroyed! Come on, get moving already, we need to go! There's nothing that we can do to save these people now! We have to save ourselves, it's no good if we jus stay here and die without being able to help anyone else!" shouted Barret.
Seeing Barret's point, Cloud rushed away from the bomb on the system controls over to him, and after a heavy sigh of defeat and sorrow, Tifa also rushed over to them both.
Cloud and Tifa both quickly held tightly onto Barret, as Barret held firmly onto the tough and tight wire, and he stepped onto the edge of the platform. With a loud bellow, Barret then leaped right off the Pillar with Cloud and Tifa both clung tightly onto him, and they all swung out of the area of the doomed Sector 7 on the long wire, and they were then forced to let go of it, and they tumbled hard into the playground just in front of the gate of Sector 7.
After they had landed heavily there, Cloud, Barret and Tifa all stood up, ignoring the aches rushing through them all, and they each stared in horror and fear at Sector 7, as the moment of its ultimate destruction had finally begun, and all they could do was helplessly watch as the disaster commenced.
At that moment, the timer on the bomb stopped and read 00:00, and it suddenly exploded in a gigantic ball of fire and light that flashed across the whole area. Gigantic flames spread and instantly consumed the entire Pillar itself, and in another flash of bright light, the entire structure of the massive and tall Pillar itself exploded in a huge ball of fire that blew the entire support structure to bits of rubble, as bits of concrete fell to the ground, and that was all that was left of the Pillar now.
As a result of the Pillar's destruction, the enormous Sector 7 Plate (right above the Slums of the Sector, with the upper city right above it) no longer had any support to hold it up from below, and it was torn violently from the steel cables that connected it with the other parts of the Plate, with a loud metal screeching sound that echoed throughout the entire city of Midgar itself.
The entire upper city of Sector 7 on the part of the Plate itself lurched to the side as the Plate began to be torn from its cables, shorting out all the electronics in the entire sector. TVs went blank, lights flickered off, and computers went dead, as all the cables surrounding the part of the Plate finally snapped completely off with a loud squeal of metal, and the gigantic form of the Sector 7 Plate began to fall down at once.
Beneath the falling form of the Plate, in the Slums, the people there could only look on, and watch in horror and intense terror as the gigantic Plate with the upper city above it slowly dropped from the very sky itself in a ball of blazing fire that erupted from across its gigantic sides, and the Plate began to completely crush and knock over the very tops of the tallest buildings in the Slums as it began to reach the ground.
The section of the Plate suddenly struck the ground with a massive slamming noise that echoed nastily throughout the whole city of Midgar. At that moment, explosions rocked the entire section of the Plate to its core as fire erupted across the Plate as it struck and flattened the entire Slums of Sector 7 in an instant, crushing the buildings to bits as if they were nothing, and crushing the people of the Slums so effectively that they were reduced to mere blood and squashed bits of flesh under the Plate at once.
The horrible, blood-curdling screams of all the citizens of the upper city of Sector 7 flew through the still empty night as explosions blazed throughout the whole place, and all the buildings of the Sector 7 upper city exploded in a gigantic shockwave and a massive ball of fire that reached up and rose above even above the upper cities that the city had once been beside, before the flames slowly began to die down, leaving every single person in Sector 7, in the lower and upper cities alike, all dead and killed horribly, crushed or blown apart, as the section of the Plate exploded into bits of rubble that spread across the entire area of the Slums it had fallen down to.
But up at the Shinra Headquarters that towered on the very centre of the whole Plate structure, far above on the top floor of the building, President Shinra watched and looked down on all the destruction and chaos that had occurred from a big window in his office, with no more than a big grin and a nasty sneer on his face, as he raised a glass of wine, and toasted it to the ultimate victory and success, and still stared at where the Sector 7 Plate had once been intact a mere moment ago.
Cloud, Barret and Tifa could only stand and watch all of this from the playground before the Sector 7 gate, in grief and terror, at the traumatic sight that would undoubtedly fill them with their own fair share of nightmares and horrors, as the deadly spectacle finally drew to a close.
A few more seconds and moments had passed by, as the flames and explosions that had surrounded the fallen section of the Plate finally died down, leaving a completely dead city above it, and an absolutely crushed city below it, and then all that remained of Sector 7 now was no more than a gigantic pile of rumble and ruins that had once been the section of the Plate, and a completely deathly silence filled the entire area itself, with only a chilling wind to accompany it, and all of the lost souls who had been crushed and annihilated by the cataclysmic destruction that had so devastatingly occurred…