Disclaimer: If six years of posting fanfiction up here without a cent made doesn't prove my non-ownership, then the intelligence of the human race has really declined. That being said, I only own the concept driving this work of fiction, not any recognizable characters or the world. That belongs to Square.
Notes: Long, long ago I stated that when I thought about working on this fic, I had to rewrite the first chapter to match the writing style. After four years of putting it off, I've finally looked at it again, only to find.... It has to be rewritten all over again. That being said, this fic is non-compliant with anything other than the original game. Deal with it bitches. Not focusing on pairings, instead on the characters. Specifically the main characters.
Warnings: Character Death, Language, Blood, Gore, Violence, Man on Man Sex -that means yaoi, loves-, Ocs, lots and lots of dead Ocs and living Ocs, only a ew of which will be important.
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The first thing Dan noticed when they arrived in Kalm was the fact that every available surface was covered in blood: walls, ceilings, streets, rootops, street poles, everything. The second thing he noticed was the quiet, no sound, not even the wind was blowing when the remainders of Shinra's army step foot in Kalm. The smell of blood was clogging his nostrils, making him want to gag. Common sense dictated that he should have smelled other things, gun powder, the electrical scent of materia, hell, even the scent of burned flesh would have been welcomed, but all he could smell was blood.
"Captain." One of the rookies stated, looking wild eyed and disturbed beyond all reason. He was probably going to need to see a therapist after this, Dan noted. This wasn't his first rodeo, as they said out west. He had cleaned up after the first Nibelheim incident.
"Yes soldier." He stated, glance sweeping over the area they had deemed base for the remainder of operation. No matter how hard they tried, they couldn't get the blood of off the walls. It was unnerving to see it glistening, still half-wet, on everything in sight. Even though they were stepping in it, the medic was having kittens about how unsanitary it was, no footprints were left behind, it remained undisturbed.
This mission was seeming more dangerous by the minute,
"We can't find the bodies." Dan turned and regarded the rookie with a glare.
"Have you looked over the entire town?" He demanded. Five hundred people did not just vanish into thin air, not even when Shinra's corruption was at it's peak. At Nibelheim they had found plenty of evidence when called to clean up. To find a town filled with blood and no bodies was just... He didn't want to contemplate it.
"The entire town sir, no sign of anyone." Dan frowned.
"Then search again."
"Yessir." The rookie scuttered off, Dan watched him leave, still frowning. Another soldier approached him, glancing around nervously. He recognized him as one of the Soldiers that had been under his command during the Meteor incident. They had had personal contact with the band of rebels who had saved the world, and had cleaned up the 'refuse' from more than a few of their 'accidents' at that time. He still remembered Junon.
"Something you want?" He asked after a few moments, noticing that the other man was acting rather shifty, looking, not at the blood, but the other soldiers. The younger male nodded, eyes wary.
"Captain, there's a rumor going around that General Strife did this. The privates are saying that President Lockheart told them herself that she always expected him to follow in Sephiroth's footsteps." They shared a glance. Both were aware that General Strife was a good man and wouldn't harm a fly unless it attacked him first. Not only from the way the man had commanded them before he retired, but the way he has spared their life when he had commandeered their submarine during his war on the Shinras.
"The privates, eh?" Dan muttered. Shinra's Standard Operating Procedure for spreading rumors that they wanted people to believe as true was to tell the army that it was so. It had been used since the Grandfather of Osmond Shinra's Grandfather and it had been very effective in controlling the minds of the general populace. Unless, of course, one had some measure of reasonable intelligence, but that was few and far between. How sickening to see their fair lady pulling the same tactics as the ones who came before, when she had professed to wanting to change Shinra.
It was quickly seeming that nothing had changed except their masters.
"Not that it would matter." Dan stated, watching as his unit searched the bloodstained town. The other soldier glanced at him. He shrugged. "Without Hojo, we don't have the equipment to handle a 3rd class, much less someone with the enhancements of Strife's level." He even doubted that AVALANCHE could handle their leader without some casualties, if a victory at all. If Strife was behind it, the world was doomed. There were no more SOLDIERs.
Which may be the aim of Shinra, removing the source of their fall before it happened again. He didn't want to contemplate it, but the thoughts that were swirling in his brain did not predict a pleasant future. It was quickly becoming apparent that the new Shinra was worse than the last in many ways.
"Do you still have Captain Highwind's number?" He asked, recalling that the other had been in his unit before he had been transferred here. Highwind still held a reasonable amount of power with Shinra, but more importantly, he was on good terms with Strife.
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"As of this morning," President Lockheart addressed the camera, yellow eyes cold and calm, piercing the souls of every person watching. Not a single hair was out of place, she was unruffled, unnervingly calm for someone who had lost a comrade and dear friend. Since Kalm's strange disappearance had been discovered, she had been working furiously towards this moment, completely unlike her old self. "Cloud Strife, former General of Shinra's Army, is now an enemy of Gaia."
She paused, allowing a moment for this information to sink in. It was so easy to convince people that Cloud had gone insane, especially since General Sephiroth had already set precedent. It was already the quietest, deepest fear in everyone's heart, she was only giving the people what they wanted. "In a stunning display of brutality, he murdered all of Kalm's inhabitants in the night, leaving only bloodstained buildings behind. The bodies have yet to be recovered, but we assume that my dear comrade Barret, his wife Elmyra, and their daughter Marlene are among them. As such there is a reward for any person who comes forward with information on what is now called the "Kalm Massacre'."
"If you see Strife," she continued, her voice emotionless, cold, uncaring. It was as though she were speaking of the weather, not of the murders of countless people, some which were friends by the one whom her heart had once held dearest. Something had changed her during the final battle with Sephiroth, first her eye color, then her personality. "Please, contact Shinra immediately, then calmly proceed to the nearest shelter. Do not attempt to reason
with Strife. We have reason to believe that Strife, like his late commander Sephiroth, has gone insane."
This was not Tifa Lockheart. Outwardly, she appeared to be so, inwardly, she was not. Her actions had made it very clear, driving away those who had known her before the change. Cid couldn't stay in the same room with her without swearing incoherently, Vincent avoided her. Barret had not spoken with her since Meteor. Cloud had been the only one to treat her the same, having known her the longest, but even he had gazed at her with a strange, disbelieving look on his face sometimes. Something that had not gone unnoticed by the press.
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"What the fucking hell?" Cid swore, spitting his tea across the table as Tifa started to slander Cloud Strife's name. Really, he had to fucking wonder what kind of fucking proof the fucking ice bitch had that Spiky had done what she fucking said he fucking did. Strife was in Nibelheim with Vinny-boy, he had dropped them off last night, with the promise to check on them in a day or two. He really would have fucking noticed if Strife had fucking killed an entire town before getting on the fucking airship, much less if he had killed Barret.
Tossing his remote at the TV as Shera wasn't in the vicinity to turn it off, he slammed his cup down on the table, reaching for his PHS to dial Cloud when a familiar number flashed on the screen. Recognizing it as a former subordinate, he answered it. "You had better have some fucking good news." He growled into the receiver, hoping against hope.
"Kalm's empty except for blood." Came the voice over the phone. "The privates were instructed by the President to think it was Strife." Cid was very familiar with the inner workings of Shinra. He knew what that meant. The other hung up without another word.
"Goddamn Shinra." He muttered, hitting the end call button before dialing up Cloud. Spiky was not going to believe this. But then, knowing how Tifa had acted these past few years, he was not going to be surprised.
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TBC
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Thank you to all who have read this over the years. I hope you enjoy this rewritten version.
Ending Note: Tifa's eyes are brown. I am well aware of this. And no, I do not care what happened in Advent Children/Dirge of Cerberus/Crisis Core. This fic was in the works before all but AC.