Chapter III

It appeared that AVALANCHE had made their way in a lot quicker than Tseng had predicted. Shortly after the executive board meeting, they had made their way up to the 68th floor, and interrupted one of Hojo's experiments. In the ensuing chaos, one of Hojo's samples had been destroyed, and another had broken loose and joined with AVALANCHE, apparently having the same level of intelligence as a human. They managed to rescue the Ancient, but only made it as far as the elevators two floors below before Rude, a small group of soldiers, and himself had cornered them and captured them. They had been taken up to the top floor for a short period so the president could address them personally, and now they were all locked in cells on the 67th floor.

Now, Tseng was on his way back to the hospital wing. He figured Reno would like to know about the recent events. Rude was currently busy seeing to the locking up of AVALANCHE, and thus, Tseng would be the only one free to tell Reno. The elevator door opened and he entered upon the medical floor, floor 43. He followed a few corridors toward Reno's private room, and soon entered. Reno was asleep. That wasn't surprising at all, especially since Tseng soon found the empty bottle of rum on the floor that had slipped from Reno's hand. He wouldn't bother with Reno now. On the off chance he could be woken, Tseng doubted Reno would retain anything he told him in his current state.

It was when he turned to leave the room when the lights went out. A second later, red lights started flashing. This was a critical alarm, meaning something serious was happening. AVALANCHE must have broken loose somehow. Tseng was already at the elevator, heading back up to the 66th floor when all the employees still working took off toward the exit stairs. Moments later, the doors opened and Tseng sprinted down the hall and up the stairs to the floor AVALANCHE was supposed to be being held on. When he arrived, he found the entire floor dead quiet. Blood had been splattered on the floor, leaving a long trail from the cells to the specimen elevator. Tseng checked the cells quickly to learn that, contrary to his suspicions, every member of AVALANCHE was still in there, and they were all asleep. The trail of blood ended with Cloud's cell, but it didn't appear to go inside. He left Cloud alone, not wanting to fall into a trap, and followed the trail to the other end. It ended at the holding cell of Jenova. Jenova was a long-deceased Ancient that Hojo kept for his own reasons. Supposedly, it had something to do with Sephiroth. Sephiroth was a legendary first class SOLDIER who had disappeared five years earlier on a mission to Nibelheim, and was supposedly dead. This was the only piece of information in the history of Shinra that Tseng did not know anything about, a fact that drove him crazy.

Jenova was missing. Whatever had happened here, Tseng didn't like it. Jenova was missing, and AVALANCHE didn't appear to have anything to do with it. Checking the time, Tseng realized it was nearly midnight, and Rufus would be arriving. He decided he would head to the top floor and see the president. Maybe he could shed some light on what was happening. Tseng took the nearby elevator up one floor, and then sprinted across the large lab room where AVALANCHE had fought Hojo's experiment, and ascended the staircase up to the president's reception area, still following the trail of blood. Finally making it up the last staircase to the top floor, Tseng witnessed a horrific event before his eyes.

Palmer was cowering in the corner, apparently the only executive who had made an effort to see Rufus. President Shinra was standing tall behind his desk, trying not to look too shaken by the man before him, but Tseng could read the fear in his eyes. Sephiroth stood between he and the president, and he held his long masamune blade out, pointed directly at the president's chest.

"This planet is but a hollow shell, drained of its energy. I will restore it, and with Mother I will find the Promised Land. One step at a time I will do this. The first step to restoring the planet… is by ridding it of you."

"Now Sephiroth…" the president said, trying his best to sound in control of the situation, "I'm sure whatever you have in mind we can work out between us. I thought you were dead all this time… I'm truly enthusiastic to see you are not. You see, there's this terrorist group that I've been having trouble with. If you could maybe… help us with that problem, Shinra Incorporated would be glad to help you with anything you need."

"I am beyond the need for such trifles as favors. Your help is the last thing I need. You cannot talk your way out of this, Mr. President. It would be best if you accepted your fate, it would be most painless that way." Sephiroth advanced on the president. Tseng didn't want to, he even thought the president would deserve this, but it was his job to protect him. Silently running up behind the ex-SOLDIER, Tseng unsheathed a small tanto from behind a scabbard on his belt, and thrust it in a stabbing motion straight into Sephiroth's kidney.

The motion was quicker than Tseng could process. Sephiroth whirled around, slamming his blade into Tseng's so hard it was wrenched from his grip and flew across the room toward Palmer. Before Tseng could look, he dove backward, narrowly avoiding a second swipe from Sephiroth, who then let his masamune go, sending it straight through the president's chest, before vanishing completely from sight, leaving Tseng breath taken and confused on the floor.

He got to his feet, regaining his senses. Looking around, he found the trail of blood ended before the president's desk, and the masamune impaled through the late president's body. Looking to his right, Tseng saw his own blade sticking out of the wall, where Palmer's head had been moments before. Clearly Palmer had been able to duck out of the way in time, but Tseng didn't know where he'd run off to. Claiming his blade and sheathing it, he suddenly heard Rude's voice in his ear. It was his radio.

"Tseng, what's the situation?"

"Rude, you won't believe this… Sephiroth is here… or was. He disappeared. I'm not sure how to explain it, perhaps he has an Exit materia… but he's left his sword behind… that doesn't make sense. Rude, I need a chopper up here stat. Rufus will be here any second and I need to get him out of here safely. Rude… Rufus is the new president of Shinra… his father… Sephiroth killed his father."

"I copy," was Rude's only reply, but Tseng could tell that Rude was just as shocked, if not more so than he was. Suddenly, Tseng heard footsteps coming up the stairs behind him, and the booming voice of Mr. Wallace. Tseng darted out the glass doors that led to the roof heliport before they could reach the top of the stairs and find him.

Rufus Shinra stood tall in the breeze that swept past the open door of his helicopter, letting his blond hair and long, white coat blow in the wind. He wasn't quite sure how he felt about returning to Midgar. He hated the filthy city, but Junon had started to take its toll on him as well… it hadn't been much better. To him, it was a simple matter of moving from shithole to shithole. The only consolation he felt as the helicopter began setting down was that he wouldn't have to face a large welcome home party… at least, not until the next morning. He hoped he wouldn't have to see his father for very long. His father had never cared for Rufus directly, but only for the continuation of his legacy.

As the helicopter set down, Rufus stepped out into the chilly night and immediately knew something was wrong. Tseng was walking determinedly toward him looking rather shaken. Tseng, the last person he would have expected to greet him, and even less the person he had expected to see shaken. Rufus' helicopter took off again, and flew down to the level 35 heliport to park when Tseng reached him, immediately breaking into words that caught Rufus off guard at first, but slowly hit him harder and harder as he went on.

"Good evening, Mr. President," said Tseng, "I hate for you to find out like this, but your father was… murdered moments ago by Sephiroth. It appears Sephiroth isn't dead as we'd all presumed, and now he intends to find the Promised Land without the aid of Shinra. This makes you president now, and it is my priority to keep you safe. Rude should be here within seconds bringing a chopper. You must be removed from the premises as Sephiroth is still at large, and AVALANCHE, the terrorist group is right there in the office as well. It would be best if we escaped before they even knew you had set foot on the ground…"

He trailed off, although Rufus was finding it hard to concentrate anyways as the truth sunk in. Sure his father had never paid him any attention, and had thrust the title of vice-president on him and shipped him off to Junon without giving Rufus much of a choice, but he was still his father. The sounds of the chopper brought Rufus back to his senses and Palmer was running out of his father's… his office right past him. He dove into the chopper before Rufus could even ask what was happening, and Tseng said something to him about getting on as well, but he wasn't paying attention. AVALANCHE had followed the head of Space Exploration outside. Finally grasping on to an emotion, fury, Rufus decided then and there that someone would pay for the night's events. That someone was AVALANCHE.

"Tseng," he muttered, "Get in the helicopter. I wish to exchange a few words with these terrorists before we depart."

"I'd have to advise against that, sir. It is unwise under present conditions," protested Tseng.

"That's an order," He replied, and Tseng said no more. He stepped onto the helicopter, and said something to Rude that caused him to lift off, although they still circled overhead, prepared to pick up Rufus at a moment's notice. He reached inside his coat, making sure his shotgun was still in place, and waited for AVALANCHE to catch up to him.

"So… so Sephiroth was actually here," said Rufus. "By the way, who are you guys?"

"I'm Cloud, former SOLDIER first class," said the man with spiky blond hair.

"I'm from AVALANCHE," said the tall black man, whom Rufus deduced was Barret.

"Same here!" Confirmed a busty brunette in a black skirt.

"…a flower girl from the slums," said the other brunette in a pink dress.

"A research specimen…" said a red, lupine creature surprisingly. Rufus would have not expected the thing capable of speech by merely looking at hit.

"Well what a crew," said Rufus coolly. "I'm Rufus, president of Shin-Ra, Inc."

"You only president cause yer old man died!" spat Barret, wielding a menacing looking arm-graft.

"That's right. I'll let you hear my new appointment speech. ...Old man tried to control the world with money. It seems to have been working. The population thought that Shin-Ra would protect them. Work at Shin-Ra, get your pay. If a terrorist attacks, the Shin-Ra army will help you. It looks perfect on the outside. But, I do things differently. I'll control the world with fear. It takes too much to do it like my old man. A little fear will control the minds of the common people. There's no reason to waste money on them," he finished his speech by combing his hand through his hair and turning back to face them, as he had been pacing.

"He likes to make speeches just like his father," said the brunette in the skirt. Cloud turned to Barret and gave him an order.

"Get outta this building with Aerith!"

"What?" asked Barret.

"I'll explain later! Barret! This is the real crisis for the Planet!

"The hell's that supposed to mean?"

"I'll tell you later! Just take my word for it now! I'll go after I take care of him!"

"Awright, Cloud!" Barret, Aerith, the red creature, and the busty brunette all left, heading back inside the building, leaving Cloud alone with Rufus. Rufus slid his hand inside of his coat, gripping the handle of his shotgun as he questioned Cloud further.

"Why do you want to fight me?

He answered, "You seek the Promised Land and Sephiroth."

"Exactly. Did you know that Sephiroth is an Ancient?"

"...A lot has happened. Anyway, I can't let either you or Sephiroth have the Promised Land!"

"I see. I guess this means we won't become friends…" Before Cloud could say anything back, Rufus drew his shotgun and fired at Cloud. Bullets sprayed at Cloud, and though he managed to draw and swing his sword, he couldn't possibly deflect the entire shell. A few bullets connected with him, but his thick SOLDIER armor absorbed most of the damage. Cloud shook off the blast and charged forward, swinging fast. He wasn't fast enough. Rufus pumped and fired, this time knocking Cloud to the ground. Rufus pumped again and aimed downward at Cloud, ready to perform his coup de grace. Cloud raised his arm however, and Rufus took this as a plea. He laughed to himself, but it was a laugh he should not have done. Cloud was in fact casting a spell on him and said the incantation during Rufus' moment of humor. Rufus fell backwards, as his body was wracked with electricity.

He stumbled back, and his grip loosened. The shotgun almost fell from his hands, but he managed to grasp on to it at the last second. When his vision returned, he saw Cloud looming over him, swiping downward with his sword. Rufus rolled to the side a bit too late, catching the blade across his shoulder. He felt the blood start to trickle down onto his chest, feeling hot compared to the cool night air. Rufus rolled to his feet and fired another shot at Cloud, who dodged to the side and charged again. Rufus pumped and took sight again. This time however, Cloud sliced the barrel of the shotgun clean off, and brought the blade back down, narrowly missing Rufus as he dodged.

Rufus was now cornered, and feared he would meet the same fate as his father, when the helicopter swooped down, and a panther-like creature dove out, tackling Cloud as it sparked with electricity. Rufus thought it must have been one of Hojo's creations, but instead of stand around musing, he took the opportunity to grab onto the helicopter, as it lifted off. "That's all for today," he told Cloud as the helicopter flew away. Rufus watched Cloud defend himself against the beast for a few moments before it was easily slain, and then Cloud ran back inside. Then, Rufus was flown too far from the tower to see anything that happened. He could see though, that all the lights were turned out.