Final Fantasy 7
Emerald Princess of Vernea
Chapter Nineteen
A single Shinra guard slept peacefully in his chair in the security room, unaware of everything that was going on in the rest of the building. All around him the many television monitors were focused on different parts of the upper levels of the Shinra Headquarters. The green lights on each of the monitors signalled that everything was okay and there was no cause for concern, so the Shinra guard thought it would be safe to take a nap.
However, as he slept, one of the monitor's lights changed from green to red and flashed brightly, although the guard did not stir. The monitor was showing two lifts on the 60th floor, and in particular the one that was just opening and releasing the three intruders that were gathered inside. But the Shinra guard was fast asleep and lost in his own world of dreams, and so he did not see the three as they began to pile out of the lift.
Cloud, Tifa and Barret piled out of the lift and stood on Floor 60 of the Shinra Building, and quickly headed off into a small room at the side to avoid being seen. This floor was different in structure to the previous floor, and was a little better guarded. The middle of the floor was empty but was bordered by four guards that patrolled in pairs back and fourth each of the different sections, peering through each pillar to catch any unwary intruders. At the far end of the floor was another small room that was the staircase leading to the upper levels, but the guards were right across the floor, blocking their only way across.
"Lookit that, all them guards is runnin' around," Barret growled angrily as the three of them peeked through the second door leading out of the side room and at the guards as they patrolled behind the pillars. "Cloud, you go on ahead and signal us when it's safe to come."
Cloud didn't protest and went to the door to get a closer look at the guards patrolling pattern. The four guards were split into two pairs that were patrolling different sections of the floor. The first two guards closest to them were patrolling behind the first three pillars, stopping at the large structure in the middle of the floor. They seemed to walk at the same time, stopping between the pillars to peer through. Their movements were fairly regular, so he figured it would actually be an easy task to make their way across.
He slipped out of the door and towards the first pillar. He pressed himself against it and looked back through the corner of his eye to see the two guards walking towards him on the other side of the pillar. He saw them stop, and then turn away and began to walk back, and it was only then that Cloud made a quick, quiet dash for the next pillar. He made it just as the soldiers turned and headed back again. He stood silent behind the middle pillar, with a soldier on either side of him on the other side of the pillar. A few moments later the soldiers turned and headed further down towards the first pillars, and it was then that Cloud made his dash for the third and final pillar before daring to make a dash for the middle structure. He leaned back against it and sighed heavily, relieved to have made it halfway across the floor without being seen. But now he had to get the others across.
Barret was already waiting in the doorway for Cloud to signal to him. Now that Cloud was in the middle he could see the soldiers a lot better and where they were. He waited until the soldiers were moving towards him before he signalled to Barret to move forward. Barret slid quietly out of the door and stopped behind the first pillar as Cloud signalled for him to stop. When the soldiers began to move again Cloud signalled for Barret to move again, until he joined Cloud in the middle, and he began to signal to Tifa to move across.
Moving to the other end of the floor was just as simple as the first part. Cloud went first, moving across the pillars one by one past the soldiers until he reached the very last pillar, which stopped near the door leading to the stairs. He stayed by this pillar and signalled for Barret and Tifa to come across one at a time. They had a close call as Tifa stepped out a little too early, stepping back again just in time before a soldier spotter her, and then they would have been caught and all their efforts so far would have been for nothing. Once they were all safely across the floor they all headed into the room with the stairs leading up to the next floor. Barret grinned haughtily in his own pride.
"Okay!" he cheered, now that they were free to talk openly again. "We're gonna rock!"
"Remember, we're here to save Aeris," Tifa reminded him sternly.
Barret turned to her. "Hell, I know that!" he snapped.
With that the three headed on up towards the 61st floor. As they walked up to the next floor they were surprised to find that the door leading into the level was unlocked and left wide open – so much for security. Of course they couldn't head straight up to the 62nd floor, for that door had been left locked. So they decided to brave the danger and headed out onto the 61st floor in search of a Key Card that would unlock the next floor for them.
The 61st floor seemed to be a large common room for the staff that worked in the Shinra Building. It was wide and vast, with wooden tables and chairs scattered around for people to sit and relax in while they enjoyed their lunch breaks. There were numerous people walking around or sitting down – clearly the Shinra kept people working even at night. The floor was quite nicely decorated with a number of green plants and shrubbery around, and it seemed like a pleasant floor compared to the rest of Midgar. Obviously this wasn't the kind of place Shinra would keep their prisoners in, so Aeris was not on this floor.
"The hell are you?" came a voice. "What're you doin' around here?"
Cloud and his group turned sharply to look behind them, and jumped to find a Shinra Executive standing directly behind them, looking at them with a suspicious look on his face. It was no surprise to them that they looked suspicious with their armour and weaponry, but they didn't think they would have stuck out that much.
"......" Cloud mumbled quietly, struggling to find a believable answer.
"Oh, I see," the Executive said suddenly. "You must be that whatcha call it..." He tapped his head for a moment, before he clicked his fingers. "Shinra Inc, Repair Division!! You know, it looks like this building is starting to fall apart." He pointed to the door that the group had just come through. "This door was just pushed open. You ought to fix this right away. Oh yeah, and take a look on the other floors too. I'll give you this." He pulled out a Key Card imprinted with the number '62' on it, and handed it to Cloud. Then he walked away, leaving Cloud blinking in his confusion. Then he shrugged. At least they had gotten hold of a Key Card leading to a higher floor. So they turned and headed out to the stairs again, swiping the card through the slot beside the door that led onto the next floor, and stepped through.
The next level was Shinra's official library, which contained all their books relating to their weaponry, defence, Planet Study, and anything else they had a department of. One section of the library was even about space exploration, which seemed confusing to Cloud and his group since no one had ever made it into space, and didn't even know that Shinra had a Space Program.
A single light was coming from a room at the far end of the library. With nowhere else to go, Cloud and his group went towards it. There was a large metal plate bolted onto the door, with the word 'MAYOR' engraved into the metal.
Cloud glanced at Barret and Tifa. None of them had ever met the Mayor of Midgar before – in fact, not many people had seen him. Most people had probably forgotten by now that there ever was a mayor, since Shinra had most of the control in the city. Even so the mayor was an important person, and should be able to provide them with a key card to the higher levels. And if he wouldn't give it to them willingly... Barret loaded his gun. Cloud then pushed the door open.
The inside of the office looked just like a librarian's office, and not the kind of room suitable for someone as important as the mayor. There were numerous boxes full of papers around, and files containing reports and other things. The mayor himself was sat in a chair at the far end of the room, mumbling quietly to himself as he looked over some documents. He looked up as he heard the door behind shut behind him, and looked at the three standing behind him, their weapons at the ready.
"Hmm? Oh, and who might you be?" he asked of them. He stared for a few moments, eyeing over their weapons. He nodded slightly. "You all must be those... ahem..." He stopped himself just in time. "Me? I'm Domino, the Mayor of Midgar. Actually, I'm Mayor in name only. The city and everything in it's really run by Shinra, Inc. My only real job is watching over Shinra's documents... Me! The Mayor! A librarian!"
He stopped as he saw the irritated faces of Cloud, Barret and Tifa glaring back at him. They had no time for idle chat with a man who was depressed about his job and what it had become, and they certainly had no time to hear his life story. Domino seemed to read this in their faces and nodded his head.
"Ohh...... You want to get upstairs?" he assumed, folding his arms. "I'll tell you what, if you can guess the password, I'll give you my keycard. Yes, that's it. Guess the password and I'll give you my keycard! Get it on the first try and I'll even throw in a special item!"
The three standing at the end of the room each raised an eyebrow. Domino sounded like he should be presenting a quiz show, and not being the Mayor of Midgar. They turned to one another and began to mutter quietly amongst themselves, trying to come up with something that could be the password. Without any clues it was a tough decision to make, and they could go on for hours just guessing passwords. And that was time they didn't have.
While Tifa and Barret muttered quietly (arguing again as to whether Barret should just shoot the Mayor and take his keycard) Cloud looked around the office. There were papers strewn everywhere, but there was only one that caught his eye. It was a scientific report about Mako and Materia. The word Mako on the report had been circled in a bright red pen, along with a little drawing that he thought was the Mayor holding Mako in his hands. He tapped Tifa on the shoulder and pointed to it. Cloud then stood upright and turned to the Mayor.
The mayor was waiting patiently. "Got it?" he asked. Cloud nodded. "Then tell me. So, what's the password?"
Cloud glanced back at Barret and Tifa, before turning back to Domino. "Mako?" he asked.
Domino stared blankly for a moment, before a large grin spread on his face. "MAKO!!" he exclaimed, his voice loud and joyous. "God, I love the sound of that! MAKO! If I had a lot more of it, I would be a real Mayor! ...Hmm. Well, okay. Here, take it." He pulled out his keycard, which was imprinted with the number '65', and handed it to Cloud. "I never thought you'd get it on the first try..." Domino admitted, scratching his head. "Just goes to show you can't judge a book by its cover. Oh well, a promise is a promise. Take this, too."
He delved into his pocket again and pulled out a small ball of materia. Judging by its colour Cloud guessed it was Elemental Materia, which was very useful in certain situations. He was about to ask Domino a question, but Domino answered it before he could even ask.
"Why would I do something like this, you ask?" he said. He narrowed his eyes fiercely. "To mess with them, of course! Shinra's been torturing me forever. That's why I was a little rough on you all just now. Now go up there and really make them suffer. This ought to make us even! Heh heh heh......"
Cloud and his friends quickly left the cackling Mayor, thinking he had maybe lost a few marbles while he had been cooped up in that office working for Shinra. They headed back to the stairs and used the high level keycard to make their way up towards level 65. They passed Level 63, which looked like some kind of maze; and Level 64, which was the gym and resting area.
They stopped at Level 65 and looked around. It was a floor with a number of small rooms at the side around the perimeter, with one large room in the middle. From what they could see this floor was empty and they were free to move around. They headed into the large room.
There was a large model built in the middle of the room, and it looked like a large model of the city of Midgar. It was identical in almost every way, including the layout of the plates and reactors. The model however was incomplete, as some pieces of the model, particularly those parts of the plates, were missing.
"A model of Midgar..." Cloud breathed quietly as they all looked upon the model. "Born from Mako sucked right out of the earth."
"Parts of the model are missing," Tifa pointed out, pointing at the empty slots in the model.
Cloud turned to look behind him, where one part of the Midgar model was resting on the floor. He picked it up and began to place it in one of the Midgar model slots. It fitted in perfectly in the slot for the Sector 1 plate. There were more pieces scattered around the rest of the room, so the group all worked together to put the remaining slots in place.
As they finished putting last piece in place (incidentally, the piece that represented the plate for Sector 7), a loud click could be heard from somewhere in the room.
"...Sounds like something opened up..." said Cloud.
He walked slowly around the edge of the Midgar model, looking down into the model for something that could have unlocked once they had finished putting in all the pieces. He stopped beside the unfinished section of the model that represented the only unfinished sector in Midgar, Sector 8. Curious, he reached inside the model. He felt around for a moment until his hand clasped around something small and rectangular, and he pulled it out.
Sure enough, it was a keycard, imprinted with the number '66'. An employee must have dropped it in there during the model's construction, and it must have been there for a long time. However that didn't matter, and they quickly headed up towards the 66th floor, feeling certain that they were getting closer and closer to Aeris.
The next floor was very busy and people were walking around everywhere. They were mainly secretaries carrying files to other offices, and inside the offices the other employees were working hard throughout the night. They were so busy with their own affairs they took no notice of Cloud and the others as they walked cautiously past them, looking for someone who looked like they had the authority to get up to the next levels, since it was also clear that Aeris was not being held on this floor.
As they turned a corner towards the middle of the floor, they very abruptly came to a stop and pulled back behind the corridor. The President was just around the corner, along with more of his top employees, which was why they were forced to stop before they could be seen. They peered around the corner and watched as President Shinra and the rest of his employees walked into the large conference hall in the middle of the room, shutting the door firmly behind them.
Cloud and his group stepped out into the corridor again, and stopped just outside the conference hall.
"Now what?" Barret asked.
"We need to hear what's going on in there," said Cloud. "Maybe we can find out where Aeris is." He looked at the locked door. "But how to get in there..."
The three fell silent as they thought for a moment on a way to eavesdrop into the meeting that was going on in the room beyond. Tifa suddenly clicked her fingers.
"I know!" she exclaimed, and before Cloud or Barret could ask her what it was, she turned and ran off away from them.
They followed her as she ran around the corner and stopped at the end of the corner, just outside the floor toilets. She signalled for Cloud and Barret to follow her before she ran inside the toilets and out of sight. Cloud and Barret looked at each other blankly, and then followed her into the toilets.
Tifa was standing in one of the cubicles at the end of the toilets, stood up on one of the toilets and fiddling with the latch of an overhanging grate that led into the air ducts that ran between each floor. Finally the latch came undone and Tifa pushed the grate up into the duct, and then she grabbed onto the sides and pushed herself up into the duct.
Finally Cloud and Barret realised what Tifa was up to. The ducts ran between each floor, and there would be more grates opening out into other parts of the floor to ventilate them, including the conference room. Which meant that if they followed the ducts correctly, they would be able to see and hear directly into the conference room without being seen themselves. So they followed Tifa up into the duct.
It was a very compact space, and Barret could only just fit with his large form. Tifa and Cloud fitted in quite easily, and began to navigate their way through the small maze of ducts towards the conference room. They soon found it and came to a stop around it, peering down into the conference room, where the meeting was about to begin.
"Geez--!" exclaimed Barret. "That's a lotta suits!"
Emerald: Yes, I know I altered the whole Midgar model scene, but I thought that search like that was a little bit unbelievable and coincidental. I hope you guys don't mind. This should be the only 'author add-on' – I wanted to keep it as strictly novelistic as possible. Thanks for all the good reviews, by the way! I'll shut up now...
