: Chapter Seven : Incarcerated
When they reached the 69th floor, Aeris was separated from the rest of the group.
"We can't have you mixing with these ruffians now, can we," Tseng told her smoothly, though not unkindly. Leading her away by the arm, Tseng left Rude to deal with the others. Aeris passed Cloud a helpless look over her shoulder as she turned a corner into a long, balmy-looking corridor, lit by pink lights. He stared back at her, trying to send her a silent message of assurance with his eyes, before she was lead round the wall and out of sight.
Cloud turned back. Rude was at the head of their group, ushering them through a lengthy, menacing passageway. The buzz of the Mako-fuelled lights was the only sound to be heard, along with the thudding of their feet against the rich, dove-blue carpet. Lining the shiny, marble walls stood rows of Shinra guards, their faces hidden behind their dark glasses and flesh-coloured masks. Cloud held his breath and found that he could not expel it. Even the members of the Shinra had been de-humanised, even the President's most loyal servants. Cloud wondered, falteringly, whether the very soldiers he was passing now had a conscience like he had. It chilled him to think that people as cold-blooded and ruthless as these existed. He had been one of the lucky ones who'd escaped.
At the end of the long, callous corridor were colossal, highly burnished oak double-doors. They stopped in front of it and Rude opened the entrance with acasual flourish.
"Go inside," he ordered, in a flat, unwavering voice.
"Where are we, ya swine?" Barret, who didn't like being pushed around, demanded."Where are you takin' us?"
Rude made no reply, remaining as emotionless as ever. "Go inside," he repeated in exactly the same tone of voice as before.
Having no other choice but to enter, they stepped inside.
The room they entered was enormous. Decorated in a plain metallic grey, it nevertheless had an awe-inspiring effect. A crystal chandelier hung from the high, airy ceiling, yet it gave out no light. Pink, turquoise and ivory-yellow lamps produced a misty, eerie glow from their places on the three glittering metal walls. The whirr of fans sent a cool, clean draught of air Cloud's way. He had not tasted air so pure in such a long time, and it gave an odd, tingling sensation to his nostrils.
As they were pushed further into the luxurious, spacious room, more aspects of it became apparent. The furthest wall was not a wall at all, but a huge, glistening window, looking out onto the black void that was Midgar. A balcony stretched out beyond this. Although the window emitted no light, it seemed to make the room appear larger, more capacious.
"Ah," a distinct, dangerously soft voice spoke, "you have brought the intruders."
President Shinra was sitting at a desk in the middle of the room. It had been raised on a podium, and shone like a glass and chrome throne in the lights. The man's round, contemptuous face studied the captives leisurely, hostile, sinister.
"I must say I am surprised to meet you people again," he sneered, disdain on his face. Barret shouted at him, his stupefaction at the grandeur of the room failing to keep hold of him.
"We didn't come here to see your ugly mug, you bastard! It was them who brought us in." He threw an accusing hand toward Rude and some other guards, who didn't flinch in the least. The President narrowed his eyes.
"You are beginning to bore me," he shot at Barret coldly. "But, never fear - I shall soon be rid of you irritating upstarts."
"Oh, and what are you going to do?" Barret cried sarcastically. "Burn me at the stake or somethin'?"
"I might." The President fingered a gilt pen with his stubby fingers lazily, twirled it round. "And while we're on the subject, I think it would be in the public's interest to have you executed, no?" He smirked callously at Barret. "Especially after your little escapade concerning the Sector Seven plate."
Barret burst in rage.
"You bastard! How dare you suggest...!"
"Silence!" The President's voice instilled immediate quiet. He stood up and glared round at them. "You are all traitors to the glorious name of the Shinra! Do you expect me to let you go with your treacherous deeds!"
There was a dead silence. President Shinra rearranged his tie with an ungraceful movement of his hand and sat back down. When he looked up again, his gaze was more controlled.
"You cannot hope to overcome the Shinra's supremacy. Do you know how we control the world? Through the sales of Mako, and their profits. The people are ignorant. They fight to get to the top, they squabble and murder and kill to get a hand into the Mako industry. They know no better - and at the end of the day, it is we who profit from their stupidity.
"As long as there are people like this in the world, the Shinra shall remain in dominance. But it is not enough. We need to secure our position as leaders of the world. There must be some way ofrealising our ultimate ambition."
"And at last it can be done," Cloud chimed in, in a low voice. The President looked at him closely, a spark of interest in his eyes.
"Oh? And how may that be, young man?"
Cloud looked up defiantly.
"It's something to do with Aeris, isn't it," he replied, in loud, clear tones. "She's the last Ancient, and with her co-operation you can find a power that no one in this world could ever dream of."
President Shinra stood up again and began to walk toward the window. For a moment he gazed out into the blackness of the dilapidated Sectors -his kingdom.
"Are you acquainted with the story of the Ancients? With their purpose in life?" he finally inquired, his tone soft. Cloud shrugged evasively and waited for him to continue. The President turned again, his stocky presence suddenly seeming more imposing. "The story is far too long and complicated to tell at this moment in time. But most of it is of no consequence to me." He leaned on the table with his hands, his eyes narrowing. "What interests me is the fact that the Ancients are reputed to have knowledge of a land of supreme happiness. From what our sources tell us, this land is rich in Mako."
"The Promised Land," Cloud finished.
"Yes," the President looked amused. "Once we find the Promised Land, our supply of Mako will be limitless. We shall be able to completely control the flow of Mako that will pass through the world." He grinned evilly. "We may even use it to set up colonies in space."
Cloud watched the older man lift himself straight with self-satisfaction. Again, the President spoke.
"With Miss. Aeris' co-operation, all this and more will become possible."
Red XIII stepped forward.
"If the girl is truly an Ancient," he began in his rough, wizened voice, "I fear she will not aid such avaricious schemes. I do not believe that the Promised Land can be found simply by extracting information of its whereabouts from her. Consider - maybe it is not possible to find the Promised Land, unless you are an Ancient."
"Nevertheless," replied President Shinra briskly, "she will lead us to where we want. We have our ways."
"And what are they?" Tifa spoke up for the first time, her voice brazen.
The other sat back down in his seat heavily.
"I'm sure my Head Council will think of something. They are extremely capable at those kind of things. Now..." he slouched back into his plush leather chair, "...I think that this has been enough of a hearing for you." He clicked his fingers and the guards moved forward. "You will be put into prison for the night, and then tomorrow we'll decide what is to be done with you. Most likely, you'll be publicly executed."
"What!" Barret yelled in fury. "Executed!" He began to run up to the President's desk, but Rude moved forward silently and stealthily,grabbing him roughly. Against the giant's strength, even Barret was overwhelmed. Still, he refused to stop shouting.
"I'm gonna getcha, you bastard! You'll pay for this, I swear it!"
President Shinra dismissed the threats with a flourish of his hand.
"You will be executed," he declared out loud, and with that, Cloud felt himself being grabbed painfully about the wrists and being shoved and kicked out of the room.
Cloud leaned his back against the wall. It was cold in the dank, musty cell and he hunched his knees to his chest in a futile attempt to warm himself. Resting his arms on to his legs, he lowered his head. What was to happen to them now? Would the Shinra execute them? The answer to that was a probable yes. Cloud remembered hearing from his SOLDIER days about the new head of the Weapons Development Department, a woman named Scarlet. Today was the first day he'd actually seen her. He vaguely recalled rumours of Shinra traitors that had been publicly executed by her orders, and that she was something of a sadist. He shivered. It said a lot about the Shinra, when there were people like Scarlet working in it. Back in the old days, Scarlet had been the daughter of the President's closest friend. He remembered what his mother had once said: she used to be a cute little girl with pigtails. Now look at her.
Tifa was different though, Cloud decided.
She was lying on the cell's only bed, her arms pillowing her head, her eyes focused on the ceiling above.
"Do you think they'll really execute us?" he asked her, trying not to sound like he cared. She didn't look at him.
"I hope not. Not that I'm afraid or anything. It's just that there are things I need to...tie up."
"Such as?"
She turned to face him.
"There are still things that I need to...talk to you about, Cloud."
He was puzzled.
"What things?"
She looked up at the ceiling again in sudden frustration.
"Not now," she muttered, almost as if to herself. "I still need a little more time, Cloud..."
He shook his head in bewilderment. What the hell did she mean, 'not now'? Why did she need 'a little more time'? For what? And how much time did they have left? He was mystified. He was just about to question her, when he heard a sudden, sharp knock sounding from the hollow wall he was leaning on.
"What's that?" he asked Tifa in a whisper.
She shrugged. "Don't know."
"Do you think its Barret and Red XIII trying to communicate?"
"Probably." Tifa looked uninterested in the subject. Cloud sat back and was immediately jolted by another knock. He shot a glance in Tifa's direction, and saw that she was trying to sleep. Turning round to examine the wall, he found that it was quite hollow. Taking a penknife from his belt, he began to drill a small hole through the flimsy material. It seemed that this cell had been part of one larger one. This sub-standard wall had been put in to create more cells for more prisoners. Another of the Shinra's examples of their obsession with money, Cloud thought, as he finally managed to pierce a hole right through the wall. He peered through it, but couldn't see very much.
"Barret? Red XIII?" he called softly. "Are you there?"
There was silence for a minute, then a green eye materialised at the other end of the cavity.
"Cloud!"
He was astonished.
"Aeris! I thought they were putting you into a safe place!"
"This is a safe place, isn't it?" she replied. He shrugged, even though he knew she couldn't see the action.
"I guess so..."
Her voice was light and cheerful, as always.
"I thought you might be here. I heard the Shinra soldiers throw you in."
"Yeah, the bastards," Cloud sighed. "Are you all right in there?"
Her eye disappeared from the hole, but he could still hear her voice.
"Of course. Besides, even if it did get really unbearable, I'd still be all right."
"What do you mean?" he asked, removing his eye also. She took a long time to reply.
"The Ancients," she answered simply. Cloud broke off a piece of wall with his thumb, but he still couldn't see much.
"The Ancients? You mean the thought of them comforts you?"
"No," she answered. "I mean they talk to me. I can hear them."
Cloud said nothing. He remembered Elmyra saying something along the same lines. He sat back.
"So, what's it like, listening to the Ancients?" he questioned.
She was silent for a minute or two.
"What's it like? It's a little hard to explain. It's usually my mother that I can hear. She's the one who speaks to me the most. I used to hear her in the Sector Five church all the time."
"Where are they talking to you from?" he asked, interested in the conversation's topic. "The Promised Land?"
"I don't know. All I know is that, it's a very noisy place. There are so many people talking, it makes it hard to understand what they're saying..."
"Oh."
They were both silent for a while, then Aeris spoke to him again.
"You know, Cloud, I haven't forgotten."
"Haven't forgotten what?"
He could hear her suppress a giggle.
"You know. The date we agreed on."
Before he could reply, Tifa immediately seemed to come to life. She sat up on her bed, a wry look on her face.
"Oh, I get it," she exclaimed, loudly. There was a gasp from Aeris' end.
"Tifa, you're not in there, are you? I didn't know..." she paused. "I'm sorry."
Cloud passed Tifa a look that didn't say anything in particular, but she seemed to relent.
"It's all right, I guess. If I'd just known about it without having to find out like this..."
She sent Cloud a marked look, and he put his hands up in self-defence.
"Hey, it was a deal, okay? I'd be her bodyguard, and in return she'd give me date. She insisted, I couldn't stop her."
Tifa threw herself back on the bed.
"Really, Cloud, you don't need to explain."
"What's that you were saying about me, Cloud?" Aeris' voice suddenly intervened. He banged his head against the wall, sighing loudly. He began to think that this was the beginning of it all; of this delicious disaster that he had felt brewing up between the three of them. He thought it 'delicious' because it was quite a pleasant experience for him to be having this obvious attention from two attractive girls. Nevertheless, it was a disaster, because he couldn't see any of this playful flirtation going anywhere. He answered her question morosely.
"Nothing, nothing at all."
Though the previous thought had caused him some sort of comfort, it was not long before he began to feel the anxiety flood into his body again. It was not a gnawing, nagging anxiety; rather, it was a dejected, desolate one. It was as though he could almost accept his fate for what it would be, that he would be executed as a member of AVALANCHE and be forgotten. And yet there was a dim gleam of hope in the back of his mind, a kind of remote light of solace. He'd escaped death once, twice, so many times, that it seemed almost natural that he should cheat it once again.
Feeling restless with the dread, he began to pace the room heavy-heartedly. Leaning against the wall opposite to Aeris' he suddenly guessed that Barret and Red XIII would be in the next cell on the other side of this wall. Stealthily, he once again began to bore a hole through the brittle partition with his penknife. The plaster began to give way and finally fell to reveal a tiny, inch-sized cavity. Cloud put an eye to it and was surprised to see one on the other side already.
"Jesus Christ!" the unmistakable voice of Barret penetrated through the wall. "It's Cloud, isn't it!"
"Sure is." Cloud replied.
"Yeah, well," Barret's voice was tired, "I'll always recognise you by those Mako eyes of yours."
"Are you and Red XIII okay?" Cloud asked in a whisper.
"Well, you know me, I'll live through anythin'. Don't know 'bout the lion, though."
Red XIII's still astonishingly astute voice snarled from behind Barret.
"I'm not a lion. I happen to come from a very prestigious tribe of warriors." There was a triumphant note of pride in his voice. "Do not underestimate my character simply on the basis of my looks."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, Mr. High-an'-Mighty," Barret muttered, then he turned back to Cloud. "He's been goin' on 'bout his tribe for hours now. It's gettin' borin'."
"Red XIII," Cloud addressed the fiery creature. "How old are you? You sound pretty intelligent for a so-called animal."
"I'm forty-eight years old," Red XIII replied. "But my wisdom is not only due to my years on this earth, but to my heritage too."
"There he goes again," Barret rolled his eyes through the hole. Red XIII continued.
"My grandfather has taught me much about the world."
Barret found humour in the sentence.
"Grandfather!" He began to roar with mirth. "Whassa animal like you doin' with a grandfather!"
Cloud, feeling disinclined to laugh with Barret, moved away from the wall, crossed the room and sat back down in his original place. Tifa turned round on to her side, resting her head on her hand. She smiled at him.
"Feeling worried?"
He took in a breath and fiddled nervously with the zip on his boot.
"Kind of, yeah."
The curve on her lips did not disappear, as she looked at him. Pushing back a lock of chestnut hair from her shoulder, she spoke again to him.
"Cloud, don't worry. Be strong."
"There's no reason to be strong, Tifa." he returned, hopelessly. "Tomorrow, we're gonna be dead. It's going to be all over."
"What's the problem, Cloud?" she seemed concerned. "The prospect of death never usually fazes you out."
Shaking his head, yet glad of her trouble over his apprehension, he made an attempt to reply.
"It's not death, exactly...I suppose it all comes down to what you were saying earlier. There are still things I need to sort out."
Tifa's face suddenly changed. Cloud was startled to see the difference in her features. Her scarlet eyes had filled with the faintest touch of pain, and the contours of her cheekbones had transformed to a pale shade. It unsettled Cloud considerably. Tifa hardly ever let her true feelings known in her facial expressions. Whenever she was hurt, she'd hide it under a mask of contagious cheerfulness. It had been a defence mechanism from when her parents had died. It was just the way Tifa was.
Cloud realised that he hardly knew Tifa as a real person, as someone with underlying emotions and feelings. It was strange, because they'd been friends since childhood, sharing thoughts and secrets; and yet, he did not know her.
"Yes," she finally answered, quietly. "There are still things to sort out."
She lay back down on the hard mattress and closed her eyes.
"Going to sleep now?" Cloud asked. She nodded.
"Hmmm."
He rested his head on the cold, damp wall.
"Goodnight, Tifa."
She grunted in reply, said no more. Cloud turned his face round so that his ear rested against the wall.
"Aeris?"
There was no reply for a second and then he heard her voice.
"Cloud?"
He paused. Aeris, he thought, he did not know her either. Would he ever get to know her now?
"Goodnight, Aeris."
Her voice was an exquisite bell.
"Goodnight, Cloud."
-oOo-
Next: The escape from Midgar...