Before Crisis: The Beginning

By DarkAngel

Disclaimer: I don't own 'em. More's the pity…? XDDD

Dedication: To hikarisan, who hates novelisations, but is reading this anyway. I would also like to dedicate this particular chapter to a close friend of many years, who has just proposed to his sweetheart – and she accepted! Congratulations!

Chapter 8: The AVALANCHE Leader (Rosalind)

The air of the reactor was warm, almost uncomfortably so after the chill of the night air outside. Rosalind stopped, looking around. The lights gave the entire room an eerie reddish hue. The huge pipes snaking along the walls and along the ceiling reminded Rosalind of blood vessels. The interior was strangely rounded, as if the whole interior was organic. Strangely, Rosalind was reminded of the inside of a womb.

Her PHS rang and Rosalind picked up, still somewhat off kilter from the interior of the reactor.

"They're after the reactor," Tseng said without preamble. "They're going to try to breach the main passage by blasting through them. Stop them!"

"Yes sir." She shook off her daze and looked around. There were doors and passages heading off in all directions, but if she remembered the schematics correctly, the heart of the reactor should be north from the entrance. She set off.

It wasn't long before she found her target. At the sound of her footsteps, two operatives turned around. "Down with the Shin-Ra!" they shouted. Rosalind, who had switched back to regular bullets earlier, aimed for the side of one man and struck the other one in both legs, incapacitating them.

Turning along the twisted passages, she could hear shouting now. The gunshots had no doubt been heard. She made her way closer to the reactor, dispatching the enemy with clean shots. It felt like she was performing the actions from somewhere outside of herself. The only thing she could think about now was getting to the reactor – anything and anyone else that stood in her way was inconsequential.

Finally, she was in front of the reactor. Making quick work of the enemy guard, she stepped in front of the man setting up the explosive charges. Resolutely, she trained her gun on him. The operative stood up, brandishing a short sword. He snarled. "We're so close! You're not going to stop me now!" She could hear the desperation in his voice. Without so much as a twitch she pulled the trigger. The man dropped dead, blood pouring thinly from the wound in his forehead.

Taking out her PHS, she gave Tseng her update.

"Good work. Come back to headquarters with Reno as soon as possible," he said. "We'll do the complete debriefing once you're back."

Rosalind hung up. Come to think of it, Reno hadn't shown up. She bit her lip. She hoped nothing had happened to him…

Just outside the reactor, Rosalind watched in horror as Reno was dealt a heavy handed blow by a burly looking man in a pale khaki uniform and a bandana. She gasped. What was going on? Who was this guy?

Reno looked up. His eyes widened when he spotted Rosalind. "Get out of here, rookie! This guy's trouble!" His eyes rolled up into his head as the burly man punched him again, a blow that knocked the redheaded Turk's head hard against the ground. "Reno!" Rosalind shouted, horrified.

The man looked down at Reno with undisguised contempt. Prodding him with the tip of his boot, he snorted. "He was all talk." His gaze fell on Rosalind, and he raised his fists. "You're next."

With a yelp, Rosalind dodged the punch he threw at her. She heard something crack in the vicinity of where she'd been standing. Rolling onto one knee, she fired a shot but missed. The man laughed. He lunged, and Rosalind was barely able to dodge the next hit. Getting up, Rosalind backed off so there was some space between her and the big guy. She threw up a hand. "Comet!" she yelled.

A series of burning meteorites rained down around them, hitting her opponent, who grunted from the impact. Before he could move, she lined up a shot, hissing in annoyance when it merely grazed him. She threw up her hand again. "Lightning!"

The man, singed as he was, didn't seem in the least affected by her attacks. He laughed, clearly enjoying her look of bewilderment. "So you can fight a little. Playtime's over, though." His jaw tightened. "I'll make you regret having anything to do with the Shin-Ra!"

He rushed her. This time Rosalind couldn't get out of the way, and she found herself getting thrown into the air from the force of the impact as his body slammed into hers. She hit the wall behind with a hard thud. Something in her back twinged, and with a gasp, she slumped forward, unable to move. Who the hell was this guy? He was way too strong if he could immobilize her with one hit like that, much less take out Reno with about as much apparent effort as swatting an insect.

The man reared back again; it looked like he was preparing to deliver the final blow, and Rosalind squeezed her eyes shut. It couldn't end like this. She willed herself to move.

"Mr. Shears, sir!"

Rosalind's eyes snapped open. From her vantage point on the ground, she could see another one of those brown-garbed men saluting the big man. "Fuhito is saying that we're all to gather at Junon."

The big man – Shears – seemed disappointed at this missed opportunity to finish her off. A shudder went down her aching spine. She recognized that look in his eyes. He wanted to kill her – he would have enjoyed killing her. What had she done to deserve that kind of hatred? She didn't even know him.

"Take care of these Turks here," Shears ordered. "They're just about finished anyway."

The lackey saluted, watching his leader leave. He pulled out a hunting knife, moving forward hesitantly. He looked at the two of them, then, seemingly deciding that the unconscious Reno would be the easier job, approached him.

Anger boiled up in Rosalind's veins. She didn't know who these people were – what they were trying to accomplish – but they had gone too far. They had tried to blow up the reactor. If they had succeeded, they would have taken out a good portion of the city, all thousands of innocent citizens. They had caused unrest, had tried to kill her, and now on top of everything else they were going to kill an unconscious man.

"This can't happen," Rosalind muttered, pulling herself up, ignoring the pain shooting down her back. Raising her voice to get the attention of the operative, she stood up, adjusting her grip on her weapon. "I'm not going to let you get away with this!"

The fight, if one could call it that, lasted all of two seconds. Before he could even react, the operative toppled over on top of Reno. Grimly, Rosalind approached them, moving the operative off of Reno.

"Sir?" She shook him. He was probably just unconscious. She could still feel his pulse, after all. She shook him harder when he didn't respond. "Reno, get up!"

With a groan, he came to. Blinking, he smirked up at her. "You saved me, huh…"

"I guess I did." She waited for Reno to pull himself up. Her gaze fell on the fallen operative. "Who were those guys?"

To be continued…

Author's Notes: Another comparatively short chapter. Actually, this chapter is an amalgamation of two chapters – you'll notice the line break partway through this chapter, yes? It didn't make sense to split those two scenes apart, since the continuity between one and the other was there, and to break them apart would have been unnatural. So, I merged them. :3 I'm not sure what was I thinking when I broke them apart in the first place. o.O;;; I guess that's what you get when you write in a semi-conscious sort of way.