Disclaimer: I own nothing except my original characters blah blah blah

---------------------------The Mystery Virus------------------------

Alarms were going off and red lights were flashing all the way down the corridor that led to the entrance of the medical wing. We were all running down the corridor with Tseng and Elena in front running with guns drawn, Reno and Rude flanking Rufus Shinra, and Reeve was running with me in the back of the line. I had my sword out and ready to face whatever had caused the alarm in the first place. Several terrified people ran past us and I could tell that whatever faced us ahead, wasn't going to be pretty. A sense of dread was welling up within me as we reached the medical wing just as the two large doors that connected the medical wing to the rest of the facility, were closing. I sped up running past everyone else, trying desperately to get there before the doors sealed themselves shut, but I was too late. They shut with a resounding metal clang, sending shock waves throughout the facility. I could hear screaming on the other side. A sound of pure terror and helplessness.

"Fuck!" I shouted, slamming my hands against the doors."What is going on in there. Tseng, How do we get in?"

"You can't get in. They are solid titanium doors with magnetic locks. Built so that if some type of virus or pathogen is released the doors will seal themselves, keeping the infected from reaching the surface. Even the airducts are sealed to prevent anything from escaping. I am sorry but there is no way of opening them until the threat is neutralized." Tseng said sadly.

"But what in the hell happened?" Rufus said.

"It sounds like they are being attacked by something in there!We have to help them." I said, pointing at the doors.

"I can only guess that when that man bit the female scientist, he infected her with the same unknown pathogen."

"Shit dude. Are you telling me that this place is hot." Reno said, looking around as if he could spot the germs.

"I don't know but the blood samples should be analyzed by now. I can log into one of the computers in the security room.It should shed some light on the situation. We can also see exactly what's going on from there. " the young scientist said.

"Alright people lets move. The longer we stand here, the worse the situation gets." Rufus said, making his way forward.

"Sir, should we post more guards here just in case something does happen and the threat escapes?" Tseng asked.

"No. I will not have anyone engage the threat until I know what exactly what we are dealing with." Rufus replied.

No one said a word on the way there. The people disappearing, a strange militaristic group kidnapping people from their homes, infecting them with some sort of virus and then releasing them with no knowledge as to what had happened to them. Everyone was lost in thought trying to piece everything together. It didn't seem real. I looked over at the young scientist, noticing that his hands were shaking slightly as he punched in the number of the floor where the security offices were located. As we were riding the elevator I tapped on the young mans shoulder. He jumped slightly, but relaxed when I smiled reassuringly at him.

"What's your name?" I asked him.

"Oh, I'm sorry Sir. It's Robbins, Dexter Robbins."

"Nice to meet you Dexter. I'm Cloud." I said, shaking his hand.

"I know who you are Sir. You've developed quite a reputation around here." He said smiling, "I mean, it's not every day that you meet the man who has saved the world several times."

"Yeah right." I said. I pointed to the rest of the group, " If I didn't have these guys around, I would have been long gone by now."

"Yeah. Old Spike here is a good fighter and all, but every once in a while we have to bail him out of some insane situation." Reno said, hugging my shoulders.

"Except when your getting your ass handed to you by that Yazoo character." Rude spoke up.

"Sheesh Rude. Don't remind me. That guy was creepy with a capital C, yo." Reno said shuddering.

We had stopped on our floor and everyone filed out of the elevator. We then headed down another hall where several smaller offices were to the left and right of us, the people nodded to us as we walked by. Rufus pressed his pass card into an electric slot next to one of the doors. A small clicking noise was heard and the door slowly opened. There was a huge wall of monitors at the front of the room. Apparently there were cameras for each of the hallways as well as for each of the rooms. The people at the desks looked up as we walked by. Tseng walked up to the large console that controlled the monitors and typed in something. Suddenly all of the monitors switched to the same image.

"Oh my God." Tseng said looking in horror at the images before them, "What could have done something like this?"

There were people either slumped against the walls or lying in the floor. Some of them looked like they were trying to claw their way out of some of the rooms. Each had wounds on there necks or shoulders and blood was everywhere, almost like someone painted the walls with it.Everyone in the room, some of them covering their mouths, each with a look of horror plastered on their faces. A young woman burst into tears and had to be carried out of the room. Dexter actually started to puke into the trashcan next to him. I stared on in shock as the camera image changed and more people were shown.

"Holy Shit. Are they all dead?" Reno asked. All the color had drained from his face and he looked like he was about to throw up himself.

"I don't know. We won't know until we can get in there." Tseng said darkly.

The camera images changed several times before stopping on, what appeared to be, a woman crying over a body. I couldn't help but feel sorry for her as she rocked back and forth. Wait.. Something doesn't seem right, I thought to myself. I asked Tseng to zoom in on the woman he did just as she suddenly looked up and smiled, blood dripping down her face. Tseng actually backed away from the screen as if she was going to burst through it. She grabbed a middle aged man near by and bit him in the throat, tilting him towards the camera so we could see what was happening. The man started to writhe beneath her, at first in pain and then..

"For fucks sake, that guy looks like he's enjoying it!" Reno said pointing at the screen.

"That doesn't make any sense." Elena said looking closer at the screen," Maybe the image is distorted."

"I don't know but I don't want to see anymore." Reno said, "I don't know of anything that would make someone want to drink blood. That is just disgusting, yo."

After he had emptied the contents of his stomach, Dexter started looking for the report from the Science Department on the results from the blood. He yelled out when he found the results clicking several on the report to make it readable. His face started to lose color as he read it. He looked like he wanted to faint, either that or throw up again. They all followed Rufus to the computer Dexter was at to look at the report themselves. I hung back, afraid of what I might see.

"Well what do they think it is." Rufus said standing behind Dexter.

"Victim's blood contains what seems to be a virus but is more like a foreign DNA with several unidentified proteins that we cannot categorize at this time. I does act similar to a virus in that if affects the cells around it by first attaching itself to a hosts DNA, breaking the it down and then rewriting it. It then starts to replicate at an amazing rate. It then proceeds to attack the central nervous system sending out a wave of electrical impulses throughout the body, and then the brain, triggering a series of mutations throughout the victim. Thus completely changing the host into something else entirely, from eye color to personality. We do know that it does cause more acute senses, faster reflexes, amazing speed, strength, and stamina, as well as rapid cell regeneration. The specimen that we have now, has actually broken out of his restraints twice and attempted to grab one of our young interns. We do not know why they exhibit the need to infect others nor do we know the fully understand their need for blood. However, we do not believe this specimen to have the original viral strain, but a synthesized version of it. So we will not know the full effects of this virus until we can get a pure strain and study it." Dexter read, his voice quavering.

"How does the infection spread?" I asked.

"It seems that it can be transmitted through a bite or prolonged contact with contaminated blood."

"Hold on, this thing mutates people? Into what?" Reno asked.

"I believe the correct term is Vampire." Reeve said suddenly. I jumped because I had almost forgotten that he was with us and he hadn't said anything until this point. Everyone turns around staring at him like he had grown another head. He just nods toward the screen.

"Come on. Everyone here is thinking it. I am just saying that this is just way too much of a coincidence to merely be another simple mutation." He said,crossing his arms.

"Vampires do NOT exist Reeve. Period." Tseng snapped.

"Yeah. Well, explain that to the woman sucking that mans blood." Rude says.

As they got into a shouting match, I started thinking. What if Sephiroth is one of these things? GOD, What if he infected me? I started to panic, feeling for any bite marks that I might not have noticed. I looked over at Rufus who was currently talking to Dexter. I walked over and looked into the computer screen. Trying to find more clues, something to let you know if a person is a carrier or not. Eye color, wait DID Sephiroth's eye color look different. I looked up at the screen trying to find out what her eye color was. My jaw suddenly dropped. WHAT IN THE HELL...

"So someone took the original virus, mass produced it, then infected a bunch of country bumpkins?" Reno was saying, "For what purpose? And if this is the synthetic version of this virus, Then I would hate to see what the original virus carriers are like." Reno says.

"That is why we have to keep this from getting out at all costs." Rufus said, looking over the report one more time.

"Uh, guys. Where did she go?" Rude said pointing to the screen.

"Where did THEY go?" I said, snapping out of my trance, "There used to be at least 20 people lying there. What, they just got up and left?"

A loud noise suddenly pierced the silence as another alarm went off. We all pulled out our weapons and even Rufus had his gun out. I looked over at Dexter, who was hiding beneath the desk. I walked up and pulled him out from under the desk. Grabbing him by the front of his shirt, I slung him onto the desk. Pulling him close to my face I noticed that he still smelled like vomit. His eyes held a wild sort of panic in them. You could practically see that he was slowly losing his mind. I slapped him hard across his right cheek snapping his head backwards.

"Dammit man! I need you clear headed. Hiding is not going to help you if what is in that report is true. You need to start thinking boy. Your a fucking scientist for gods sake. Haven't you studied for worse scenarios than this? Seen worse than this?" I asked shaking him slightly.

"N..no Sir. I just got here three weeks ago. I Just transfered from college. I am just an intern for right now, merely reading reports and do the small tasks around the office. I have had a limited amount of field study."

"I understand. But you still have to think on your toes. Especially in this line of work. Now, how many people do you suppose were in the medical wing before this happened?"

"About 300 give or take."

"And how many do you think were left behind?"

"Maybe half."

"And we have to assume that all of them could be infected, Right?"

"If the virus spreads as quickly as I think it does,Yes."

"Tseng," I said, dropping Dexter and turning to him, "What do you think happened?"

"I don't know, but if the external alarms are going off, it means that they have found a way out of the medical wing. They are now loose within the main facility." Tseng said.

"And how long before they make it up here?"

"I say about ten minutes at the least. If they don't stop off at every floor between here and the medical wing."

"And if they do stop at every floor? How many people could be infected?"

He stared at the floor, apparently not willing to think about how many good people he would have to kill if they were infected.

"The...There are over seven thousand employee's here at th...this time." Dexter spoke up."A..At th..the current rate of in...in.. infection, I would say they will all b.. b..be infected in five hours. May..maybe less."

"Rufus, do you have an escape route for such an occasion?" Reeve said, turning to the brooding President. "Rufus?"

"Yes. But there is one problem." Rufus said, sighing heavily. He sat down in on of the chairs, placing his gun in his lap.

"And that would be?" Reeve asked.

"The emergency tunnel that leads out of here is below the main lobby of this facility. And we, gentlemen, are sixteen floors up."

"...Well, we're fucked." Reno yelled throwing his hands in the air.

"Thank you for helping our situation out by keeping your head, Reno." I said sarcastically.