Heartless Imperfection

Chapter XIII

Sora looked away from the walls, and kept running forward. At his heels, Donald and Goofy followed. Tifa and Barret, two of the last members of the anti-Shin-Ra group Avalanche led the way.

"What did Shin-Ra do to make you hate them?" Sora asked, suddenly. When they reached the top of the steps to the last floor of the building, Barret and Tifa looked at the young boy.

"Shin-Ra wrecked me, and burned my village down, unjustly. There's a lot to be answered for." Barret said, opening up to Sora, "The Turks are a part of Shin-Ra, if you haven't noticed, too."

Tifa looked at him, obviously affected by his statements. "I didn't know that…" The woman placed a hand on his arm.

He looked down at her, then back to Sora, "Let's go."

The boy nodded, needing nothing more to question anyone's motives.

"My theories can be proven! Look at my reports for yourself!" The cloaked figure placed a pale hand over a few sheets of paper. A man with a girth that didn't match his height falls over his desk, the Masamune in his back. The man who just spoke lifted his black hood away from his face. He had an emaciated frame, held together by nothing but fragile bones tormented with arthritis. He placed a frail, pale hand against his balding head, a landscape of skin with a few patches of snow-white hair. "If you give me some time, I can apply it properly. I need the correct specimens, among other things. A laboratory." He looked at Sephiroth, who remained expressionless.

Jenova was there, looking out and onto the Shin-Ra Headquarters roof, into the black of the night. Four Turks were leaning against the President's desk. Reno turned to Tseng, "How about the long, black-haired one?"

Tseng shook his head. Elena, a shorter, blonde-haired woman coughed, "We should be focusing on the mission at hands, sirs." The red-haired man nodded, grinning.

Rude, a completely bald man with shades nodded as well, and turned to Jenova.

"We must be going, my son. I must heal, and you can defeat them later. That is, if they do not steer from their path of justice." Jenova opened a dark portal, looking much like the one from Sora's recent sleep-dream.

Sephiroth turned from Jenova to the old man. "I'll look them over, hand them to me."

At that instant, Barret let loose a few bullets to the Shin-Ra President's desk. The two men instantly turned their heads, and the older man dropped his papers. A few bullet holes dotted his wrist and arm. "No!" He fell to his knees.

Sephiroth reclaimed his Masamune, and walked calmly toward the oldster. "On second thought, I've no concern for your babblings and ravings about hearts. Good bye, Doctor."

With that, Sephiroth grabbed his collar, and with a flick of his wrist, he let the oldster glide into a nearby pillar.

Jenova and the Turks were already through the darkened warp hole by the time Sora reached the President's desk. Sephiroth took a look at him, and followed his mother.

"No!" Sora jumped for it. He narrowly missed it, sprawling out of the chamber's room and flipping against the roof's railway. He hit the concrete with a thud, against his back. He looked up to a man in a white suit and black gloves. His hair shone in the moonlight, a deeper blonde than Cloud's hair.

"Who might you be," He asked, helping Sora up with a strong hand.

Sora looked up to him, "I, uh…" Just then, Tifa stepped onto the roof.

"Vice-President Rufus of Shin-Ra, I presume."

The man turned to her. "That would be me." He looked past her, "Oh, pity. It seems my father has finally done himself in. I wonder if this has anything to do with the scientist he recently hired." Rufus shoved past Tifa and walked into the huge office.

Tifa showed a look of disgust and followed him into the room, followed by Sora. The new President kneeled at the oldster's body, but the old man wasn't there. Just his dark cloak and hood were left. "Where is he?"

Barret gave him a questioning motion, "Where's who?"

Rufus bolted up and grabbed Barret by his shirt collar, "The old man! He's vital to my operation!"

Barret shoved him away with brute force, "He ain't there, I checked him right after Sephiroth threw him into the pillar. He's just disappeared."

Rufus looked around the room; his eyes seemed to nearly bug out. He looked down at the cloak, turned his gaze to Sora, and regained composure. He slicked back his hair with his gloved hand. "Alright, a minor set back." Thus, he began to gather red-stained papers near the cloak.

Barret stepped forward and aimed his weapon at the President. "Step away from those papers if you value your life, Rufus."

Tifa, Donald, and Goofy stepped forward too, and each nodded.

"You're outnumbered," Said Tifa.

Rufus laughed aloud, "Am I?"

A wolf-type creature leapt from the roof access, and tackled Sora. Catching the boy off-guard and from behind, it began to instinctively gnaw at the boy's neck.

Cloud lunged from the stairway with amazing speed and grace. Despite the bulky weapon he carried, the blonde lifted himself into the air and did a single flip over Sora, cutting the mongrel in half. The man landed, skidding to a stop on the marble tile.

Rufus lifted his gaze to him, and merely snapped his fingers. "I've embraced the darker side of things, haha."

Thus did the Heartless appear again. Shadows outnumbered the group two to one, but Soldiers added onto those odds making it more or less four to one. "Get them!"

Sora lifted his hand, despite a vicious bite mark on his neck. The keyblade appeared, and reacted toward the area the evil portal was erected by Jenova. "What's happening-," The boy felt the surge of his life energy, and warmth, flow out of him, toward the portal.

Aerith watched Sora, "He's falling!"

Cloud looked toward the area Aerith pointed to, and, after having finished an entire group of Shadows with a sideswipe, hopped toward Sora.

Barret let loose gunfire on Soldiers flying around the ceiling area, while Tifa batted at the Soldiers hovering near the ground. Goofy and Donald dealt with the majority of Shadows, batting them with weapons, casting magic, and dodging enemy attacks.

Sora fell into a crowd of evil Shadows, which began to claw at him. The last vision Sora had in conscious thought was that of a face he finally recognized again.

Kairi…