Heartless Imperfection

Chapter VI

Elmyra was an older woman, now in the care of a little girl named Marlene. She wore a long green dress and kept her hair up with a simple hair band. "You two come from … another world?"

Donald nodded as Goofy recovered from the attack. "We'd better get going, we need to find our friend."

The human woman nodded, "Well, it's quite easy to get to Sector seven from here… you just-," She explained quickly, not wanting to waste time. Her directions were quite simple, though there was no path or road to the pillar. "Tell them that Marlene is safe, would you?"

Donald blinked, "If they're there, we'll be sure to." With that, he made his way for the exit.

"Have a nice day," Goofy waved, and followed Donald.

Marlene clutched to Elmyra and cried, asking if her daddy would come back. The older female simply wept, feeling the loss of her daughter, Aerith.

Sora followed Cloud and Tifa, up a square, winding staircase. He really moves fast with that giant sword on his back, he thought to himself, as they approached a dying, lanky friend. When asked about the Planet, Cloud answered, "Not interested."

"Hmph… you haven't changed. Oh, forget it." The man answered on his last breath.

Tifa shed a tear, and moved upward. Sora watched the busty, long-legged, and exceedingly long black-haired woman, but looked back on the man called Biggs, a man Sora would never meet. The man was a part of the anti-Shin-Ra group called "Avalanche". The members met up in Tifa's bar in Sector 7 often to come up with another terrorist movement. Cloud was battle-hardened, and Tifa an old hometown friend. They put their past behind, and went on, as long as Cloud got his money.

Guns were firing, bullets snapping against the staircase here and there. The only constant sound was that of a machine gun, at the top of the metal staircase. When Cloud approached another comrade, they found she was dying, also. "...Cloud... I'm glad... I could talk with you... one last time."

He looked at her for a moment, then replied, "Is that so…"

"...Is…that so...? Ha... cool... as usual... ex-... SOLDIER... always... I liked that... in you..."

He passed her up when she fell limp, and he trudged on with Tifa, Sora following close behind. They finally reached the top, after many flights of metallic noise and bullet fire. Cloud's sword rang loud with malice as he began to cut down flying robots, kept aloft by two helicopters. Halving one, he turned to stab the other, disabling it, and at last leaped to cut one down from flight, he proceeded to land on his feet. Barret glared at him, "We ain't outta' this yet!" He pointed toward a helicopter dropping off a Turk known to them as Reno. He ran toward the command console of the Sector Seven Pillar, and looked at his enemy.

"You're too late. Once I push this button..." His hand motions toward the console, tapping it. An acknowledging 'blip' sounds. "That's all, folks! Mission accomplished."

"We have to disarm it! Cloud! Barret! Please!" Tifa cried aloud, moving toward the Turk.

He moved in her way, equipping his short, battle rod. "I can't have you do that. No one gets in the way of Reno and the Turks..."

Cloud steadied his weapon, and rushed the blue-suited, red haired man. His first motion set Reno on guard, and the man cast "Pyramid" on the Ex-Soldier. As soon as Barret readied his machine gun-arm, Reno cast the same spell on him. Tifa cried aloud, "We have to beat him, Sora! We have to!" The boy nodded, and ran forward to battle.

Reno parried his keyblade attack, and smacked the boy from another world away. "Who is this wimp? Avalanche seems to be recruiting anyone from the slums these days…" Tifa, enraged, ran at the Turk.

Surprised and taken unaware, the Turk didn't have time to defend against her assault. The woman batted his chin with her left knuckle, struck his stomach with her right fist, and kicked him in the gonads. After casting a simple electricity spell to send Tifa tumbling, the man uttered, "It's time," And jumped off of the pillar area, where Cloud and Barret were promptly released from their Pyramid prisons.

"Cloud! I don't know how to stop this. Try it!" Tears were forming in her eyes, knowing they had little time.

The blonde-haired mercenary looked at it for a moment, tapped it, but shook his head. "…It's not a normal time bomb."

Suddenly, a large metallic object hovered up to the platform. Tseng was on it, looking down at the party.

"That's right. You'll have the hard time disarming that one. It'll blow the second some stupid jerk touches it." Tseng said.

Tifa looked up, "Please, stop it!"

Tseng laughed, "Hahaha... Only a Shin-Ra Executive can set up or disarm the Emergency Plate Release System."

"Shut yer hole!" The big, dark-skinned man shouted, aiming at Tseng, and firing with his machine gun-arm.

Tseng's expression becomes serious as he shouts over the bullets, "I wouldn't try that… You might make me injure our special guest." He waves his hand to Aerith, who promptly raises her head.

Tifa reaches out to the helicopter, "Aerith!"

Sora's eyes lit up. These men take hostages?

"Oh, you know each other? How nice you could see each other one last time. You should thank me." Tseng grinned.

"What're you gonna' do with Aerith," Screamed Cloud, breaking his apathetic expression quite quickly.

Tseng looked at the mercenary for a long moment. "I haven't decided. Our orders were to find and catch the last remaining Ancient. It's taken us a long time, but now I can finally report this to the President."

Aerith was about to say something, when Tseng motioned for the helicopter to flee the scene. She shouted something inaudible, and disappeared in the deep fog underneath the Sector 7 Plate.

Sora's heart raced, what can I do? He looked around the platform, and saw two familiar faces.

Donald and Goofy panted, not quite accustomed to climbing strange stairways. "Sora!" Goofy screamed, breathless.

Sora smiled, but the Pillar started to explode, causing the platform to rumble. The boy turned, Cloud was motioning to him. The blonde was calling orders to Donald and Goofy. Two wires were latched onto the rail of the platform. Sora began to run toward his other friends as fast as his legs would carry him. His hearing started to fail as the explosion nearly reached him. Suddenly, he felt a slice of pain on the side of his head, and the world promptly went black.