Disclaimer: FFVII not mine. Just playing with it for a while.
Warnings: Crude language is about it for this chapter.
---
Underlings
Part 2
---
"…Well, that explains why we didn't find him in the SOLDIER records," said Ruby weakly.
"What do we do?" Lucy whispered.
"I'll call Security." Ruby picked up the phone. "How long ago did you see him, Helen?"
Helen was still staring at the picture. Ruby jogged her with an elbow. "Helen!"
"Oh…it was when I went up to 68 looking for Hojo."
"That was twenty minutes ago," Lucy put in. "There hasn't been a lockdown alert or anything. Maybe they've already been caught."
Ruby had dialed, and she gave her hand a flick to quiet them. "Hey, it's Ruby in the Turks' office—is this Martin? Hey, I—" She paused, then chuckled. "No, I wasn't calling about that, but I'm still on for Friday if you are."
Helen groaned and poked Ruby in the shoulder. "Flirt later!" she hissed.
"Yeah, yeah—No, Ellie's down in the file room—listen, Martin, I've got Helen here from down on 55, and she says she saw some crank on the elevator about twenty minutes ago in a SOLDIER First uniform, but he's not in the SOLDIER files, and in fact—Yeah, I know we've got recruits, Martin, but they're in Junon, I looked it up, and I told you he's not in the—yes, I thought of that, Martin. All I'm trying to—Mister, if you don't shut up and start listening, you're gonna find it awful hard to go dancing this Friday, because I'm gonna punch a hole straight down to your floor and come down there and bust your leg for you, how about that?"
Lucy had gotten over her shock, enough to be smothering giggles.
"That's better. Now. Blonde, blue-eyed crank, wearing a SOLDIER uniform, has a brunette chick and a big guy with a gun-arm with him, and they're members of AVALANCHE. …What? Okay…"
Ruby held the phone against her shoulder and looked up, eyes wide. "He says we're right. They've been getting reports from security all over the building, but they haven't managed to stop them." She suddenly jerked the receiver back up to her ear. "What?"
They could hear an indistinct voice from the receiver, and then the phone was hung up in a hurry.
Ruby slowly hung up. "They're up on 68." Lucy put a hand over her mouth. "They're demanding that Hojo release one of his specimens to them."
Lucy grimaced. "That's…disturbing. I thought AVALANCHE hated Shin-Ra—what would they want with its research?"
"Good question," Ruby muttered.
Helen glanced at the file that still lurked on the screen. "…Ruby, you and Elena have access to all the classified files, right?"
Ruby nodded.
"Shin-Ra keeps hard copies of everything. Can't we have Elena pull the hard copy file on this guy? That wouldn't alert Tseng or the President, would it?"
Ruby blinked at Helen, then grinned, tapping her nails on the keys again. "Girl, you are a lot more devious than you look. Somebody thought of that, though. Even the classified files are tagged—try to take 'em out of the section without a special keycard to deactivate the tag, and you set off an alarm. Ellie and I don't have those—only the Turks do, and some other higher-ranked people—and there's no copier in that section."
"We don't need copies. We just need to see what's in it. Then we put it back and no one's the wiser."
Ruby grinned wider. "Now you're talking. I can't go with you, though. If someone comes in and finds the office empty, Tseng'll hear about it and have my head on a platter. Here." Ruby grabbed a slip of paper, glanced at the record on the computer screen, and scribbled a couple of lines. She looked at Helen and held the paper out. "This'll tell Elena what to look for and provide you sort of an excuse for being in that area—but don't get caught in the classified section if you can help it. Brant's keycard gives you access to that area, but it might be a little tough to explain why a secretary from Accounting is messing around in the classified files."
Helen nodded and took the paper, glancing at it. Ellie—pull file #SRHQ311-R06-N230-C52 for Hel. Information only, on my auth. Ruby K. Hathaway.
"When you're done looking, do me a favor—rip that up and flush it down the toilet." Ruby smirked, but Helen could tell she was serious. Then she looked at Lucy. "Luce, you'd better stay here for a little bit until Security gives the all-clear for 68—I don't want you to run right into a firefight." Lucy, eyes wide, nodded.
Ruby looked back at Helen and gave a swatting motion. "Hurry up, girl, so you don't miss Ellie."
---
No one challenged Helen when she arrived on 65 and headed for the file room. She'd been up here before a couple of times; the employees on the floor simply nodded absently, and she didn't see anyone she knew.
This is the most I've seen of this place since I started working here. When you only go to two floors most of the time, it's easy to forget how big it is… She reached the file room and stepped inside.
It was cavernous, lit with fluorescents, dull with industrial metal flooring and gray-painted walls. Ranks of file cabinets with four-foot aisles, a few photocopiers (including the broken one Brant had been raving about earlier)—and off in the far corner, the heavy door marked RESTRICTED FILES.
Helen walked down the ends of the rows, following a soprano murmur that echoed faintly. She finally spotted the blonde secretary to the Turks crouched halfway down an aisle, muttering quietly and fingering through a bottom drawer. A pile of other files was stacked neatly on the floor.
Elena looked up and blinked as Helen approached. "Hi there. Helen, isn't it?" She glanced at the keycard for confirmation and raised her eyebrows. "Uh…"
Helen sighed. "Long story. Yes, I'm Helen. Ruby sent me down to look at a file." She handed Elena the note.
Elena examined it, and frowned. She looked around, then back at Helen. "I don't guess you can tell me what she wants with a classified file on five-year-old Mako research in Nibelheim?"
Ruby blinked. "Is that what it is?"
Elena nodded. "I pulled another file on this a few months ago. I recognize the number, N230."
Helen shrugged. "Ruby wrote it down. It was on a file we looked up…look, it'll take too long to explain, and she told me to hurry…"
Elena nodded. "Well, she gives her authorization, so it's on her head…let's go."
The classified file section was darker and drearier, and a quarter of the size of the regular file area. The incandescent bulbs that lit it needed changing and dusting. Elena led the way down a row, stopping at a dusty cabinet labeled "N230". She opened the drawer, peeked in, then closed it and opened the next one down. She rifled through the folders, most of which looked like they hadn't been touched in a while. Helen stifled a sneeze.
"Here…" Elena pulled out a folder and handed it to Helen.
Feeling a twinge of uneasiness, Helen slowly opened the folder.
---
Lucy fidgeted. "Ruby, maybe we shouldn't have sent her down there…what if she gets caught?"
"She'll be fine." But Ruby was tapping her fingernails on the keys; it was starting to get on Lucy's nerves.
Suddenly the phone rang. Ruby grabbed it. "SOLDIER Central Ad—Martin! What happened?" She listened; Lucy couldn't make out what was being said on the other end. After a long moment, Ruby relaxed. "Oh…whew. Okay. Thanks, Martin. Nobody got hurt, did they? …Oh…okay. What? …Oh, actually she's here with me. I'll send her up." She waited a moment, and then nodded. "Okay, thanks." She laughed. "Well, I guess. Okay, bye." She hung up. "They caught them."
Lucy breathed a sigh of relief.
"They got hold of the specimen and tried to get away, but—"
The door to the office opened, and Tseng walked in, followed by Rude. Tseng's level gaze fixed on Lucy for a moment, and then moved on to Ruby. "Is Elena still downstairs?"
"Yes, sir," Ruby said calmly, and Lucy envied the younger woman's cool nonchalance. "Want me to call her?"
Tseng shook his head. "I'll go find her. Something's come up." He glanced at Lucy again. "Ms. Zera, the terrorists who entered the building and threatened Hojo have been caught and incarcerated. It's safe for you to return to your desk."
Lucy gulped and nodded, recognizing that for the order that it was. Ruby patted her hand and grinned; Lucy smiled back and hurried off.
When she got back up to 68, people were bustling everywhere. One of the science techs, an assistant to Hojo, spotted her and dashed up. "Oh, there you are!" he panted. "I was looking for you everywhere! We were trying to make sure everyone was safe, and nobody knew where you were!"
"I knew where she was, Mr. Clark. If you had simply asked me, you could have spared yourself the distress." Hojo appeared at Lucy's elbow. She stared at him, startled—his hair was coming loose from its customary ponytail, there were scratches on his face and a couple of ragged rips in his lab coat, and his glasses had been bent in the middle and were a bit crooked on his nose.
"Professor, are you all right?" she gasped.
"Yes, Ms. Zera." He ruefully adjusted the glasses; they simply slipped back. "I am glad now that I sent you downstairs. But all is well now." He gave a sour smile. "Please go back to your desk."
Lucy nodded and hurried off. I don't think he knows I wasn't still in the lounge. Then she thought of Helen, down in the classified file room with Tseng on his way, and gulped. I hope she doesn't get caught!
---
Elena was fidgeting as Helen sat, staring into the file. "Hel, I'd better get back to my stuff. I've got to call Tseng back."
Helen didn't move or answer, and finally Elena hurried out, closing the door to the Restricted Files room behind her.
---
I…can't believe it…
Helen stared at the picture in the file. The image was of a boy, barely into his teens, looking directly into the camera with a daunted expression. The picture only showed him down to the shoulders, but she could see that he wore the common blue uniform of the ordinary enlisted Shin-Ra soldiers.
Strife, Cloud, read the name on the enlistment record.
Fragments from the report did a nauseating little dance in her mind. "…initial testing for SOLDIER showed minimal aptitude…" "…early discharge from the service, but…" "…the Nibelheim reactor and the subsequent disaster, he played a central role…" "…directly responsible for the demise of Sephiroth, who…" "…five years in the Shin-Ra lab in Nibelheim, infused with Mako and tested extensively, along with…" "…failed to respond, and the project was…" "…escaped, aided by Specimen Z, which…" "…terminated outside Nibelheim. Specimen C was unresponsive, and…" "…spotted in Midgar in association with AVALANCHE, but repeated attempts…" "…no further use to the project; he is to be terminated upon sight, the body brought back to…"
Helen rubbed the back of her head; the effort to thread her way through the file's obfuscating language was giving her a headache. A research specimen. A human research specimen? Infused with Mako? Experimented on…for five years…
And…directly responsible…for the demise of Sephiroth? They wouldn't even let him into SOLDIER…and he killed Sephiroth, alone?
Terminate on sight…now I understand why. He and the others were trying to get a research specimen from Hojo, Ruby said…
Helen felt her stomach roll over.
Another human? Could…they have been trying to rescue a human research specimen, like him?
Suddenly she was jolted out of her thoughts by voices out in the main room; she clapped the file folder shut and jumped up, heart pounding. She moved to the door, trying to listen.
"…almost done, sir, I was about to go back up and call you—"
"Elena." Tseng's cool voice sliced off the woman's nervous chatter. "Due to the severity of Reno's injuries, we're shorthanded. Your application has been under consideration. On a provisional basis, it's accepted. I know you've already passed the primary training program. Go upstairs and have Ruby put in a requisition for a uniform for you, and see Rude about getting access for the secondary training and a temporary weapon for the course. I'll take care of getting you your permanent registered weapon in the morning. Congratulations."
There was a momentary silence; blinking, Helen pictured Elena sputtering in shock. She felt a little like sputtering herself. I knew she was interested, but…Elena, a Turk?
"Th-thank you, sir!" she finally heard Elena stammer, and quick footsteps moving toward the door.
"Elena."
Helen heard shoes scuff on the floor as Elena turned. "Yes, sir?"
"The files."
"Oh—right!" Helen heard her scurry back to pick up the pile still waiting on the floor, and then rush off again. The door to the file room banged shut.
And then Helen heard a firm tread coming toward the Restricted Files door.
Oh, shit! She eased open the file drawer, flipped frantically through the file numbers. C48, C49, C50, C51… She slid the file folder in, heart hammering as she heard Tseng coming closer, and slowly slid it shut again, not daring to make any noise.
The handle turned.
Helen ducked around into the next row, out of sight of the door.
The door opened. Helen heard it close behind him, and the footsteps moved down the row to the file cabinet she'd just dashed away from. She heard the drawer rumble open, a brief rifling through folders, the thick whisper of a file being extracted, the quiet flicking of pages. Tseng hmphed.
"Cloud Strife," he muttered thoughtfully.
Helen stood motionless, hand clamped over her mouth and nose to muffle her breathing.
After a few moments, she heard him close the file drawer. He moved to the door, and there was a strange-sounding beep as he cleared the file with his Turk access. Then he opened the door and walked out.
She let her breath out slowly as she listened to him walk away; eventually she heard the file room door close, distantly.
Time to get out of here.
---
After waiting a minute or two to be sure Tseng would be well out of the area before she emerged, Helen left the file room and headed for the elevators again. She was about to go back down to her own office before she realized she still didn't have the cost report she'd come up for in the first place.
…Well, maybe I'm pushing my luck a little now, but Brant said not to come back without it. She pushed "UP". At least this one time I can get away with taking him literally.
She looked around cautiously as she stepped out on 68. On the surface, things seemed as calm and ordinary as they had when she'd come up here a while ago; but as she walked toward Hojo's office, she noticed that people passed in twos and threes, walking together, and whispered uneasily.
She looked at her watch. Less than an hour until I'm off-shift. Assuming Brant doesn't ask me to stay late to make up for the time I was upstairs, even though he sent me up there. It feels like it's been half the night…
She stepped into Hojo's outer office. Lucy was back at her desk, and looked profoundly relieved when Helen walked in. "Oh, I was so worried! Tseng said he was going down to the file room, and there was no way for us to warn you!"
Helen glanced uneasily at the closed inner door. "Where's the Professor?"
"Downstairs. They're trying to fix the damage those terrorists did to the specimen elevator, and they needed his help. It'll probably take a while." Lucy peered at her. "Did you find the file on that guy? What did you find out?"
Helen looked uneasily back at Lucy. I'm not sure what I should tell her. What's she going to do when she finds out her boss is experimenting on human beings? Unwilling human beings?
…For that matter, what am I going to do? I mean…I'm not that naïve, I knew they were probably involved in some shady business. I've seen too many strange things come across my desk to not have a little bit of an idea. But this…
I've been here all this time and had an idea that some things were not right, and not had a problem with it…isn't it hypocritical to be horrified now, when I know for sure? And should I burden Lucy with it when she can't do anything about it?
She closed her eyes briefly. Saw, again, the wary face of the boy in the file, so different from the grim, resolute man she'd glimpsed in the elevator. The man with a very, very good reason to hate Shin-Ra, Inc.
But I didn't know then, and I had no way to know. And now that I do…
She and Ruby have been my friends since I started here. If I know, and don't tell her, how does that make me any better than the people who are making things like this happen? She ought to have the information to make her own decision…or I'm denying her the chance to make any choice, just like they did to him.
To Cloud.
"Helen? What's wrong?" Lucy's voice sounded worried.
Helen opened her eyes and glanced at the open office door. She got up, walked over, and closed it, shutting them in.
---
Ruby watched with a slight smile, sitting on the edge of her desk. Elena bustled frantically around the office, papers flying in her wake. She was talking nineteen to the dozen, more to herself than to Ruby. Half of Ruby was amused.
The other half was still in shock. Elena…a Turk? I mean…I knew she was serious about it—I was the one who took her out to celebrate when she finally passed that godawful "preliminary" training course. But I guess I didn't think it would really happen. Not with Tseng in charge—that man's so tight-assed I bet he can't even take a shit without a crowbar handy.
And the Turks are so…detached. Elena…is Elena. I can't imagine her blowing somebody away—
Then Ruby smirked suddenly, thinking about the final day of Elena's testing. She'd been exhausted and jumping at shadows, she'd forgotten her lunch, she'd been on her period…and Reno just had to saunter by, ask her how it was going, and ruffle her hair. The look Elena had given him would've split atoms, but Reno had just laughed and strolled away.
All right…maybe I can imagine her blowing somebody away.
Ruby glanced again at Elena. Well…she's my friend, and I'll support her as much as I can. I just hope she's happy with this, and isn't just doing it because she's in love with the Immovable Object and wants his approval.
Elena suddenly stopped talking, stopped moving, and leaned against her desk. She was breathing rapidly, her face pale. Uh-oh. She's got herself way too worked up. Ruby got up quickly and came over to Elena, taking her arm. "Ellie, sit down." She maneuvered Elena to her desk chair and made her sit. "Close your eyes and take some deep breaths before you pass out," she ordered.
Elena complied, folding her arms on her desk and laying her head down on them. Ruby was startled and alarmed to see that she was shaking. "Girl, are you all right? You didn't skip lunch and dinner again, did you?"
"…just dinner…" came the muffled mutter from Elena's arms.
Ruby sighed. "Did Tseng say you had to do that secondary training thing tonight?"
Elena shook her head without looking up. "He just said to see Rude about it. Rude said he'd set it up for me first thing in the morning."
"Then here's what you're gonna do, kiddo." Ruby sat on the edge of Elena's desk. "You're gonna get that cute little Turk ass downstairs, eat some dinner, and then go to the rest area and get some sleep. No coffee for you. Then you're going to get up in the morning, ace that course, and then come back here and laugh with me about how it was a cakewalk and you hope your real assignments aren't that boring." She smiled. "Right?"
Elena lifted her head, and Ruby wasn't entirely surprised to see tears standing in her eyes. "I'm scared, Ruby," she whispered. "I don't want to screw this up."
"Then don't." Ruby stood up and handed Elena a tissue from the box on her desk. "Now get up and wipe those eyes before Rude or Tseng comes in here and sees you leaking."
That did the trick; Elena rose quickly from her chair and rubbed at her eyes with the tissue. "Tseng's still here?"
"For a few minutes—he was going down to talk to Security. Then he and Rude were going to go check in on Reno."
Elena grimaced and tossed the tissue in the trash. "Oh, I'm so disappointed not to be going along."
Ruby grinned. "Oh, come on. You don't miss him just a little bit?"
"Sure, like I'd miss a case of leprosy." She glowered at Ruby.
"I bet he misses you. He's got an eye on you, you know." Ruby smirked.
Elena looked pained. "Ruby, Reno's got an eye on anything female, breathing, and legal. And sometimes I'm not sure about the female part." As Ruby laughed, Elena watched her wearily, and finally smiled. "All right. Dinner and bed. Sounds like a successful date, not that I know what those are like…" She scooped scattered papers into a tidy pile on her desk and then picked up her handbag.
"See you tomorrow afternoon," Ruby said as Elena reached the outer door. "Elena?"
Elena turned, looking at Ruby in mild surprise; Ruby rarely used her full name. "Hm?"
"Good luck." Ruby winked.
Elena smiled back. "Thanks, Ruby," she said softly, and then stepped out.
---
Lucy stared at Helen, her face white. Slowly she got up from her desk and paced, although there wasn't much room in the small office. "I knew," she said very softly. "I mean, I didn't know, but…"
"I understand what you mean," Helen murmured. "You knew something, but you didn't know it all, and even if you did, what could you do about it?"
"Yes, exactly." Lucy looked at Helen. "Do you really think those people might have been trying to rescue a person, someone Hojo was experimenting on?"
"I don't know…but I think it might be possible. If it was just a regular sample, I don't see why they'd just try to take it away—I'd think they'd just try to destroy it to stop the research. Why else take the risk? They blew up two Mako reactors—why not just blow up this building?"
Lucy nodded, eyes widening. "They could have." She looked away. "I don't know what to think…"
"I don't, either. I mean…I can't just quit. My landlord doesn't accept crises of conscience in lieu of checks on the first of the month," Helen said with a small forced laugh. "But how can I just come back here tomorrow and pretend everything's all right?"
Lucy sat down again and merely shook her head, folding her arms on the desk. They sat in silence for a few moments.
Suddenly the lights dimmed by half.
Lucy looked up in confusion…and Helen felt a chill that started at her scalp, prickling, and needled its way down her back.
An alarm near the door, one that Helen had never seen active except in regular drills, flashed and buzzed three times. Three times again.
Three times again.
Then it went dark…and the lights went out entirely.
Lucy looked at Helen, round-eyed in the darkness, lit only by the computer monitor. "Helen…?"
"Lockdown," Helen whispered. She got up and found herself shaking; there were a couple of confused-sounding shouts out in the hall, then quiet.
"Lockdown? But they caught the terrorists! What's going on? Did they get out?" Lucy was automatically moving toward the wall furthest from the door, where they were supposed to sit and remain quiet until the all-clear signal. Then she saw Helen moving, not toward the wall, but the telephone. "Helen!" she hissed.
Helen picked it up and dialed the Turks office.
It rang. Again. And again. Helen waited, ignoring Lucy's alarmed queries.
The phone was finally jerked off the hook, and Helen heard Ruby's voice hiss, "What the hell are you doing? We're under lockdown! We're not supposed to use the phones when—"
"Ruby, it's Helen. I'm in Lucy's office. What's going on?"
"I don't know! Helen, you have to—"
"You remember when you played that prank on Reno and patched the security camera to display on the network? Can you do that again, so we can see what's going on?"
"Helen, you're crazy! Get off the phone and get down on the floor!"
"Can you do it?"
There was a silence, and then furious muttering. "You're crazy," she heard Ruby mutter again, but she heard Ruby move and heard rapid typing and clicking. "It'll come through in a second…but then you'd better hang up this phone and get your ass back on the floor, or I'll…" Her voice trailed off. Helen held her breath through the few moments of silence.
Suddenly there was a sharp gasp—and a loud clatter as the receiver was dropped on Ruby's end.
Helen opened her mouth, but nothing would come out. She turned toward Lucy's computer and pawed at the keys and mouse, trying to access the network.
The image of a hallway came up. The floor indicator in the corner of the image said "67". Helen stared into the image. There was a figure at the end of the hall, but in the darkness it was grainy and indistinct. There was no sound, only video.
Someone else appeared in the image—a couple of SOLDIER Thirds, she thought, from the barely-visible insignia on their uniforms. They ran toward the figure.
She couldn't see very much. A flicker from the emergency lights on something very long and sharp…and then two dark figures were on the floor; the figure was stepping over them, coming down the hall, approaching the camera.
Helen leaned closer to the monitor…and when the figure came within a few yards of the camera, her eyes went round.
She knew that face. From newspaper photos, from publicity shots, from TV news stories—stories and photos ten years old, but the face had not changed.
Another figure suddenly blundered on camera, and she saw the flash of gunfire, and then a gleaming sweep of a long sword…and something dark spattered the camera lens.
Then the face looked directly at the camera, and she jerked back reflexively. Green eyes, unnaturally bright, gleamed as though they saw her, and a faint smile touched the narrow lips.
"Helen?" Lucy whispered.
Helen stood paralyzed, her face illuminated by the monitor. She saw another bright flicker…and the image burst into static as the camera stopped transmitting.
"Helen…what is it?"
Helen's whisper was strengthless, as weak as her limbs; she sank down on her knees next to the desk.
"Sephiroth…"
---
End Part 2
---
A/N: Yes, I know I have the specimen codes wrong in Cloud's file. I'll fix them later; I was too tired to go start up FF7 and check. :P Sorry for the longish wait; hope this slightly longer second part makes up for it: )