Heartless Imperfection
Chapter X
Sora, Donald, Tifa, Barret, and Goofy were panting, sweating, and everything by the time they began to stop. "Forty-six… Forty-seven…" Sora counted aloud, having trouble keeping up with Cloud. He had the heaviest weapon, by far, and could still climb stairs faster than any other. "How does … pant … he do it," He asked Tifa, who was climbing at his side. "Forty-eight…"
She looked up, "He was, previously, a part of an elite Shin-Ra team, called SOLDIER. He joined up… Forty-nine… With Avalanche recently, as a mercenary." She smiled, and continued the seemingly never-ending journey up.
Sora looked at him. His eyes did seem to glow; perhaps it was a mark or something. He turned backward, and almost began to laugh at his friends struggling to keep up. "Fifty…"
Everyone but Cloud took a breather at the last floor, the fifty-ninth. Sora collapsed against a gray wall, having a lack of rest since they took on this endeavor to climb stairs.
"We're here…" Barret panted.
"Not quite," Cloud said, "We have more than a few more floors to pass.
The hallway was dank and cold; two things the three visitors were unaccustomed to. When his lungs were getting oxygen more easily, Sora stood up and faced Cloud, whom presently pressed onward, through a metallic door. As soon as they passed that threshold, the company found themselves in a sort of trap.
A few Shin-Ra guards ran up to them. "So much for getting to Aerith without a fight…"
Cloud rushed them and, with a war cry, he begun battle with ELITE Shin-Ra to the left of the group. Sora, Donald, and Goofy went toward the right side, to combat green-suited men and regular Shin-Ra soldiers. Tifa went toward the main officer of the entire Shin-Ra group on the floor. Barret, meanwhile, didn't risk hitting his allies with his main weapon, and held back until an opportunity presented itself.
A hack, slash, and swipe reduced the elites to nothing but a heap. Donald made quick work of a Shin-Ra with a magic spell called, "Fira". Goofy batted at his own enemy until the man clearly fell into an open elevator shaft, labeled, "Out of Service". The lanky off-world visitor guffawed and began to attack his next target.
Sora, however, was making the best progress out of all three. Nailing one lower-class officer with the keyblade, jumping up and kicking another in the mask, knocking him out, and batting the last one down with a combination of keyblade swings.
Tifa dodged the main-officer's main weapon, a notorious Butterfly Edge sword, and landed a blow smack-dab in his lower jaw. After a moment of him lying there, the woman knelt down atop him, and proceeded to punch his face repeatedly. Cloud watched from afar, looking away. Barret stumbled over a body, and held Tifa back from the lifeless Shin-Ra. Sora watched, unsure of what to say.
Tifa wiped away a tear, "I'm fine."
The tall, gruff man gave a look of understanding, "No matter what we do to Shin-Ra now, it ain't goin' to bring back the lives lost under that plate."
Sora understood, finally. Sector seven was their previous home. Their friends and family must have…
The only female in the group produced a Maximum Security keycard, taken from the lead officer, which would lead them to the highest level in Shin-Ra. After studying a map plastered on the wall of the building, they decided to go to start searching on the level below the top.
Cloud and the group got out of this elevator in a long hallway. They followed the corridor until they arrived at a large containment area. The walls and ceiling were, of course, made of metal. A large stasis area encased by glass lay before them and a mysterious man in a white lab suit is standing in front of it. Was there something in the stasis capsule? "Aerith," Cloud ran forward.
The man known only as Hojo turned around to them, "Aerith? Oh, is that her name? What do you want?"
Hojo is the lead scientist at Shin-Ra, always experimenting. Known mostly for his work on the Ancients, an old race of beings all but forgotten, though most of his sources are unknown.
Cloud pointed his weapon at Hojo, "We're taking Aerith back."
Hojo muttered, "Outsiders..."
"There's so many frivolous things in this world," Hojo began, until Barret aimed his machine gun-arm at the scientist. "Are you going to kill me? I don't think you should. The equipment here is extremely delicate. Without me, who could operate it? Hmm?"
Cloud knew he was right, and stepped back, "Ugh."
Hojo let out a wimpy laugh, "That's right. I recommend you think things out logically before you make any rash moves. Now bring in the Specimen!" The black-haired man motioned to his assistant on a high catwalk, an elevator sounded, and the floor began to shake.
Sora felt something strange eclipse over his heart at that moment. The sensation of shadow on it threw him to his knees, the keyblade appearing without him calling it. Goofy and Donald shifted their gaze from the stasis area to Sora, now. Sora held his chest, "My heart," He managed to utter, "It feels like it's going to burst!"