A/N: And now for the obligatory after-the-credits scene that we all expect from a Final Fantasy game :)
Operation Wild Goose
Far away from the warm gathering of old friends in Edge, a long black sedan pulled into a small lazy hamlet that was well off of the beaten path. The small town was typical as far as small towns go; a few old family-run style businesses, a quaint city square where the locals would congregate for old fashioned celebrations, and a popular spot for the town's youth to sneak away and profess their love for one another. The town was so unassuming and stereotypical of the small town genre that it rarely peaked visiting people's interests to ask about why they had heard the town's name mentioned in the news nine years ago.
The long black sedan pulled up to the old fashioned well in the center of town and came to a stop. After the motor turned off, three doors opened and three out of place individuals wearing black suits stepped out. One of them had a bald head with a well tended goatee. This individual made sure his sunglasses were firmly sitting on the bridge of his nose and he then adjusted his black neck tie. The driver of the car looked strikingly different. He had bright red hair that he kept lazily in a pony tail, and his obvious enthusiasm for wearing a suit was evident due to his untucked and partially buttoned undershirt. As he stepped out of the car, he lazily looked around the town and shook his head at the deadness of the place. From the rear passenger door came another person wearing the same style of suit. This man was much younger than the other two and he didn't seem to be all that comfortable in the outfit. As he stepped out of the car, he pulled nervously on the bottom of his suit jacket and ran his hands swiftly over his shoulders as if he were trying to eliminate invisible wrinkles.
"Relax, rookie. No one in this town cares what you look like."
"Easy for you to say, Reno," the Rookie said more or less to himself. Reno's lazy look hardened as he focused on his subordinate.
"What was that Russ? You givin' your superior some lip?" Russ shrugged, trying to maintain his façade of cool, but he didn't think that he was doing a rather good job of it. Rude turned and gave Russ a simple look over before he turned to his partner.
"Kid's cocky; reminds me of someone else." Reno rolled his eyes and then waved the possible confrontation away. He walked away from the car and went up the cobblestone-paved road for awhile before he paused. Both Rude and Russ followed him.
"You see that building rookie? What we came to check out is in there." Reno pointed out a dilapidated old mansion that had over grown shrubs around its base and wildly growing vines that snaked their way up the mansion's surface. Several of the darkened windows were shattered, obviously done by the local children that dared each other to do it to prove they weren't chicken. The building was obviously spooky, and Russ thought, for some reason, that it had the look of old fire stained walls. Reno could tell that Russ was spooked out by the building, but he decided that the eight hours of grief he had given the kid during the drive was enough for one day.
"What is that place?" Russ asked as he continued to stare at the ominous structure. Reno shrugged and let his partner answer the question. Rude lightly shrugged and said only two words.
"Shinra Mansion." Russ blinked a few times and then looked at the two older members of the Department of Intelligence and Investigations. He had heard stories about this place; stories that dealt with human experiments, one of which created the person responsible for the most devastating event in recent history. Of course he had thought that all of the stories about these events taking place in one single building were only an urban legend, but obviously he was wrong. Both Reno and Rude could see the level of surprise and shock in the trainee that they were responsible for and exchanged a conniving glance with each other.
Reno opened his mouth wide in a yawn and stretched his arms high above his head. When he was done, he pointed his thumb towards the building and then started to walk towards the local bar.
"Have at it, rookie. Let us know what you find out." Russ turned around to protest, but Rude merely shrugged and followed his partner into the bar. Russ cursed to himself and then turned back to look at the mansion. The sun was about to go down over the horizon, and of any place that Russ could think about being after dark, the old dilapidated mansion certainly was not one of them.
Russ pushed the old wrought iron gate open, which screeched back at him loudly in protest. Crickets chirped from the tall grass and weeds that grew fervently through the cracks of the sidewalk. Russ carefully stepped up to the large ornately carved door and took in a deep breath before he pushed it open. Much to his surprise, the door swung open easily. Russ reached into his jacket and pulled out both his flashlight and his model M007A3 .45 caliber materia-enhanced pistol. After he made sure that the safety was off and that there was a round in the chamber, he clicked his flashlight on and stepped inside the building.
Instantly the smell of stagnant air mixed with old mold poured over him. The interior of the massive hall was much the way that one would think an abandoned house would look like. The carpet was covered in a thick layer of dust, and old dried water pools turned the carpet brittle and moldy.
Russ frowned at the nastiness of the interior of the place and then started to look around for the hidden laboratory and library that all the stories talked about. Obviously the file that they were sent here to locate would be there, if it even existed in the first place. Russ thought that this search for something that could or couldn't exist was a waste of time, but if the Commissioner wanted it done, it had to be done. When Russ realized that, he understood why Reno and Rude made him go into the mansion while they went to enjoy themselves at the bar; privileges of rank.
Russ searched the left side of the house first, and after not finding a way into the basement, he searched the right side. When he entered a hallway that led to a small room with an overturned desk, he let out a frustrated sigh and kicked a can that was rusting away on the floor towards a curved structure in the wall. When the can hit, the strange hollow sound of the wall made Russ raise an eyebrow in puzzlement. He then placed his ear against the stone wall and knocked on it with the end of his flashlight. The sound he heard coming from the other side of the wall was a long hollow sound. Russ stepped back from this wall and grinned widely to himself at his discovery. But now that he found the stairwell, he had to find a way in.
After he searched the wall for any sign of a secret entrance, he went to the opposite room to see if a way in was hidden there. But after not finding one, he frustratingly scratched his head and thought about his situation for a moment. Suddenly it occurred to him that maybe the entrance was on the second floor, so he cautiously made his way up the massive staircase and entered the small bedroom closest to the front door. When he entered the room, he could see an obvious split in the curved wall that must have been the secret entrance.
As Russ approached the wall, he heard a clicking sound as his foot stepped on a loose board. When Russ slowly took his foot off of it, the board clicked back up, and the partition in the wall opened, revealing the secret entrance. Russ shined his flashlight down into the opening, and he leaned outwards to look down into the abyss. His light barely illuminated the far bottom of the spiraling passageway, and with a quick wipe of the sweat that was forming on his brow, he made his way down into the secret labyrinth.
When he reached the bottom, the dank humid air of the cavernous expanse made Russ's shirt collar stick to his neck. He started to make his way down the long tunnel, and occasionally his flashlight would pick up strange sights like a loose coffin in one corner, several skeletons that looked like they much rather enjoyed being alive, and damp rusty chains that hung menacingly from the overhead. Towards the end of the tunnel, Russ could make out a door that was standing ajar, so he carefully pushed it open with the barrel of his gun and swept the interior, ready to take aim at anything that moved. After nothing did, he was able to get a good look at the room he now stood in.
Book cases stood high towards the ceiling, though many of them were now bare; the books that had once sat on them were now strewn about and piled messily in stacks that littered the floor. To his right, several display cases stood holding strange medicinal containers, all of them having thick gray cobwebs that secured them to their surface. In the center of the room stood a large work table were several beakers and note pads laid in disarray. On the far side of the wall stood two Mako pods of a very early design; their contents now just a putrid slime of stagnant water. Russ thought that he could see something scratched into the sides of the pods, but he decided not to get a closer look. Instead, he turned to the long hallway of bookshelves that extended from the work room where he now was into a smaller room that looked like it had a desk.
Again, just like the other bookshelves, all of the ones inside the hallway were vacated, their contents stacked sloppily beside them. Several of the books were open and were facing up. Russ shined his flashlight on them and could make out something about a Jenova Specimen. While he might have found the topic interesting if he were in a brightly lit and populated room, the overpowering sense that something evil was watching him at all times made him want to find what he was supposed to find and get out of here as soon as possible.
Russ entered the small study-area and shined his light on the series of books that were still shelved in their spots. These books had obviously not been disturbed since the last Shinra scientists had occupied this building over four years before. That much was obvious due to the level of dust and cobwebs that covered the leather-bound spines of the books.
After Russ made a face that showed he was disgusted by the level of dust in this room, he silently began to walk around the room with his head tilted onto its side, reading the labels of the books. Many of them were books on different species and others dealt with biological theories that he had no idea what they meant. Several of the volumes represented were historical books, all dealing with the Cetra and the history of their race.
Slowly he made his way around the shelves, and when he got to the shelf behind the desk's chair, he read something that was different than the other books. The majority of the books were bound in either blue or green leather, but these were a series of books that were bound in red. On these books were the words "Stagnant Mako." Russ wiped the cobwebs and dust away and looked at these books again for a better look. Each of the books had a subtitle below the Stagnant Mako title.
The first one said "Findings of Dr. Valentine," and the book beside it said "Locations of Stagnant Mako". The third book said "Scientific Findings on the Properties of Stagnant Mako". While these were different than the other books in the library, it was the fourth book that Made Russ pause and pull it out. The one he pulled out was labeled "Effects of Stagnant Mako On Test Subjects."
When Russ removed the book, he turned and placed it on the desk. He briefly thought about trying to read it with just his flashlight, but the idea didn't sound too good, so he took a chance that the lamp on the desk might work and pulled the chain. With a click, the light came on, bathing the dusty air with a soft amber light. Russ clicked his flashlight off and put it on the desk beside the book. He opened the thick cover and pushed it back with a loud crack since it hadn't been opened in some time. Russ picked up all of the pages at once and was about to idly flip through them, but he saw something that was inserted at the back end of the book.
Russ then let the rest of the pages fall forward and he saw that someone had placed a file folder inside the book. He picked this up and looked at it with a raised brow in confusion. At first he didn't understand what it was doing there, but then he realized that it was meant to be typed up in its own book but never was.
When Russ opened the file, he saw that it was exactly what they were sent here to look for. The file contained a full stack of papers, but a summary report was stapled to the front. Russ leaned forward on the desk and began to read.
Report on Project X
Purpose of Project X: To test the effect of Stagnant Mako on test subjects when used in conjunction with standard Jenova Cell Injection.
Project X Procedure: Procedure followed standard Mako Radiation Therapy with Jenova Introduction, however, Stagnant Mako was used in the place of standard Mako.
Results: Influence of Stagnant Mako and Jenova detected on each subject; each having different effects. Results of individual subjects are described in individual subject biographies below.
Biography of Subjects:
Subject A:
Name: Arvin
Age: 23 at age of induction
Weapon: Long Sword
Height: 5'7"
Birthdate: July 21
Birthplace: Kalm
Bloodtype: B
Acquirement to Project: Selected out of SOLDIER candidates, X Month X Day.
Results: Subject displayed extreme strength and ability to harness Spirit Energy; however, subject also became volatile and proved difficult to control.
Current Status: In Stasis pod, Level 5 Security; Junon Underwater Reactor.
Subject B:
Name: OwzerAge: 21 at age of induction
Weapon: Twin Sai
Height: 5'4"
Birthdate: December 13
Birthplace: Junon
Bloodtype: AB
Acquirement to Project: Selected from test panel of qualifying convicts, X Month X Day.
Results: Subject displayed gains in speed and agility. Like Subject A, B displayed a heightened sense of rage and proved difficult to control.
Current Status: In Stasis pod, Level 5 Security; Junon Underwater Reactor.
Subject C:
Name: AbramsAge: 24 at age of induction
Weapon: Dual-bladed sword
Height: 7'2"
Birthdate: April 17
Birthplace: Mideel
Bloodtype: O
Acquirement to Project: Selected from test panel of professional athletes, X Month X Day.
Results: Subject gained extreme levels of strength. Like previous subjects, C proved difficult to control and had to be restrained.
Current Status: In Stasis pod, Level 5 Security; Junon Underwater Reactor.
Project Status: Due to uncontrollable temperament of subjects and the danger of their as yet unknown strength limits, Project X is hereby postponed indefinitely or until further notice.
Addendum: Previous test subjects were selected due to using qualifications that are regularly used to select members of the SOLDIER Program. Possibility of strong mental will has limited the full ability of the tested combination, creating unstable subjects. A further test will be done on another subject to test validity of Jenova theory 12.
Subject D:
Name: Withheld
Age: Withheld
Weapon: Long Sword
Height: 6'1"
Birthdate: January 19
Birthplace: Withheld
Bloodtype: A
Acquirement to Project: Former Turk who went renegade, X Month, X Day. Due to injuries, subject has been in stasis pod controlled coma for 27 years. Subject selected to test validity of Jenova's healing ability. For full report of subject acquirement, see Shinra Administrative file number 756412.
Results: Subject has healed in a rapid manner, exceeding estimated timetable. At present rate, if allowed to remain out of stasis, subject should regain full consciousness within the year.
Current Status: Placed back into stasis pod until further experimentation can take place.
-Professor Hojo
Russ stared at the document for several minutes after he finished reading it for the tenth time. Everything about it made complete sense, except for the last subject. Russ noted in his head that the last entry was dated just two days before President Shinra was assassinated in his office by none other than Sephiroth himself.
Russ quickly closed the file and began to make his way out of the basement library. He was in an evident hurry because he knew that this information was needed by the Commissioner. But he was in such a hurry that he left the library and entered the cavernous tunnel without retrieving his flashlight from the desk. He silently cursed himself beneath his breath and turned back around to get it. But when he turned around, someone was blocking his path, someone with intensely glowing green eyes. For a moment, Russ stared at the shadowy figure, trying to make out his face, but the lack of light was making it extremely difficult. From what he could see, mainly by the light the green eyes emanated, the figure had long hair.
"Forget something?" the figure said with an eerily smooth and deep voice. The figure seemed to smile, and then let Russ see that he was carrying a long thin sword in his left hand. When Russ saw this, he remembered that his pistol was still in his hand, and he brought it up quickly to fire. He never got a shot off.
The figure moved with blinding speed, and before Russ could even level his pistol at the figure, Russ felt a quick sharp pain lance across his chest before he fell to the ground.
As blood began to pour out over his still new suit, Russ gasped for his last breath. He fought to lift his head long enough to catch a glimpse of his killer. Something about the way his killer carried himself reminded him of people he knew.
"You're a T-" but Russ never got to finish his sentence before the final light of life passed from his body and entered the Lifestream.
A/N: And there it is, the end of Return of Darkness. But what about the ending you ask? Well, obviously something will have to be done about that...