Final Fantasy VII [3rd Instalment]

Emerald Princess of Vernea

Part Thirteen: Key to the Ancients

Chapter Seventeen

They landed the Highwind about a mile away from Junon. They used the natural rocky cliff that the town was built up against to hide the airship from view before approaching the town on foot. There was little doubt that Shinra was probably expecting them to come, but there was no need to announce their presence just yet.

It was no surprise to see that nothing had changed in Lower Junon. Even with Weapon's attack, the people of Lower Junon remained the same. They carried on with their daily lives, despite Shinra's claims that the people were in a state of panic.

It had been quite pleasing to discover that after the failed execution during their last visit, support for their group had soared, while the supporters of Shinra dwindled. In fact, Cait Sith had reported that people talked of Weapon's attack on Junon a direct assault against Shinra by the planet. Shinra employees were beginning to resign left, right and centre, with only the extremely loyal or those too terrified to resign remaining. Even Mayor Domino finally left his office and spoke up against Shinra, encouraging people to rise up against them (in a non-violent manner).

It was beginning to look like the Shinra Company was in a crisis. Still, considering everything that they had done to the people of Corel, Nibelheim, and the people in their own main city, it was hard to find sympathy.

The company's only chance for survival, it seemed, was to win back the support of the public by eradicating Meteor. The Huge Materia was an essential part of that plan.

But Cloud and the others did not care about Shinra's survival. Their plan to destroy Meteor by using the Huge Materia was doomed to fail. Meteor was formed by the ultimate black magic: the Black Materia. Not even the Huge Materia could break that magic. It made more sense to use it to destroy the source of Meteor: Sephiroth.

The next Huge Materia was located in Junon's Underwater Reactor, according to Cait. The reactor, as its name suggested, was built deep on the ocean floor about half a mile out to sea. It was not possible to reach the reactor by boat. The only way the reactor could be reached was to go to Junon's Upper Level and locate an access point that would take them down to the ocean floor.

To reach the Upper Level, however, they first had to make their way past the Shinra soldier who was guarding the lift. The people of Lower Junon paid this soldier very little heed. He did not cause them any trouble, so they simply ignored him.

The soldier must have been very bored, or very tired, for he yawned as Cloud and the others approached. When he saw them he started to reach for his rifle, but then stopped and relaxed his hand. He looked around at the group, his lips set in a firm line. Then he sighed and leaned back against the door of the lift.

"If you want to get on the elevator that badly, give me 10gil!" he declared.

Cloud blinked in surprise. Did he just hear him right? Was the soldier really going to let them use the lift for a measly 10gil? Perhaps this soldier didn't know who they were, or maybe it was a trick…… He dismissed that idea. One look at the soldier's expression and stance said that this was just one very bored soldier. Cloud doubted very much that the soldier even cared about what they planned to do up there.

After thinking about it for a moment, Cloud nodded his head. "Okay, I guess," he said, and paid the soldier the 10gil.

The soldier pocketed the money without comment. He pushed himself away from the door and half-turned, pushing a button on the console. The heavy doors slid open. Turning back to them, the soldier jerked his thumb inside.

"Hurry up and get in!"

The group did as they were told and hurried into the chamber. It was a large lift, but with the eight of them all together, it was a tight fit. Once they were all packed inside, the soldier pressed the button again and the doors slid shut. The platform shuddered and began to rise. Tifa looked at Cloud. He shrugged and shook his head.

The lift rose steadily. After a minute it finally came to a stop and the doors slid open. Cloud and his group stepped out cautiously, their hands staying close to their weapons. There was little doubt that Shinra expected them in Junon and had placed many soldiers around the upper levels to stop them from reaching the reactor.

To their surprise, there were no soldiers lying in wait for them as they came out of the lift. In fact, there didn't seem to be anybody at all in the soldier base. The corridors were empty. The only sound was that of the wind, blowing in from the open door just down the corridor. They were the only ones around.

They went through the open door and stepped out onto the main road. The road was just as quiet as the base, with hardly anyone around. There were no Shinra soldiers at all, not even any civilians in sight. Cloud turned to Cait, hoping for an explanation for this unusual quietness. Cait, however, seemed just as confused. He sat cross-legged on the Mog's head, tapping his crown absently. So this was a surprise even to Cait. For some reason that made Cloud a little anxious, and he unhooked the Buster Sword from his back. It could be that the soldiers were in hiding, waiting for them to lower their guard before attacking. In the corner of his eye he saw Vincent also draw his gun; he seemed to think the same.

The group began to walk down the road. They spread out, with Cloud and Cait taking the front, Tifa and Cid on the town side, Barret and Yuffie on the ocean side, and Vincent and Red XIII acting as rear lookout.

The front part of Upper Junon was still in a mess from Weapon's attack. There were signs of damage on many buildings, but all in all, Junon had managed to get off lightly. It could have been a lot worse.

The Shinra building was the one that received most of the damage; more evidence that the planet was targeting the Shinra Company above all else. There were blast and scratch marks from Weapon's ferocious assault. Cloud allowed his eyes to stray up to look at the building. It looked like a warzone; nearly every glass panel had been smashed. Still, Cloud had to wonder how much of that damage was actually caused by Weapon… and how much was done by angry civilians.

As Cloud looked up at the Shinra building, he suddenly felt that something was very wrong here. Not just the mysterious absence of soldiers on the Upper Level, but the mysterious absence of something else. Something that should be here but wasn't. Cloud couldn't quite put his finger on it, but something was definitely missing.

Cloud stopped and turned around, his face creased in bewilderment. Seeing that he had stopped, the others also came to a stop, hands close to their weapons. Cloud tapped his foot and looked back towards the Shinra building. It was like something was missing from the building itself…

"I may be mistaken, but……" he said, feeling awkward. He turned back to his friends. "Doesn't it feel like we're missing something?"

The others stared at him in confusion, and then they looked around. Yes, it did feel like something was missing from the town itself. Perhaps it was because they were nervous—being this close to Shinra—but they couldn't quite figure it out. Cloud sighed and shook his head. It didn't really matter, and they didn't have time to be worrying about that. They had other things to worry about, like the Huge Materia. He turned away from the group and carried on walking.

The others began to follow him, also dismissing the feeling that something was wrong here. The only one who did continue to think about it was Cait. His Mog hopped along slowly, trailing behind Cloud. The cat's brow creased in confusion, and once more he tapped his crown. He looked up at the Shinra building. His gaze looked lower, to the cannon…

The cannon! That was it! It was the cannon that was missing! The cannon had been removed from its place at the front of the Shinra building and taken someplace else. But… where was that? Cait scratched his chin. The only people who would know about this would be Heidegger and Scarlet. He made a note to ask them about it when he got the chance. For now, he had no time to think about it, so he pushed it to the back of his mind and hurried after Cloud.

They made their way along the main road, heading to the other side of town. Cait took the lead after passing the lift, since he was the only one who knew the way to the Underwater Reactor.

He led them towards the Shinra building, insisting that this was the only way to reach the Underwater Reactor. The door led into a long corridor that Barret recalled from when he and Cait were escaping. Cait waited until they were all through before hopping through as well, shutting the door behind him.

There was a squad of Shinra soldiers a short way down the corridor. They were practicing their drills, shuffling their rifles from shoulder to shoulder at the command of their captain, who barked his orders loudly and relentlessly. Their moves were out-of-sync, drained—they had likely been doing these drills for half of the day. A few of them looked up as they saw the companions heading towards them, weapons in hand.

Seeing his soldiers become distracted, the captain took his whistle out of his mouth and turned around, scowling irritably. His eyebrows rose at the sight of the rebels approaching. Then his lip curled into a smile. He knew just the thing to do to deal with this hapless bunch of ill-trained misfits. He put his whistle back in his mouth and gave a short, sharp (and loud!) blow.

"All right!!" Let's see how hard you trained!" he declared. He clicked his fingers and gave another toot on the whistle. "Attention!" The soldiers behind him dutifully came to attention. The captain whistled again. "Charge--!!"

The captain grinned, expecting his soldiers to come marching past in a well-trained, unified squad and bring the rebels swiftly to their knees. He heard the sound marching feet…… moving rapidly away. The captain turned in surprise, and his eyes widened at what he saw. His soldiers were marching, but in the opposite direction, away from him and the rebels. They marched swiftly for a few steps before breaking ranks and running down the tunnel.

The squad captain was literally trembling with rage. "He… hey--!!" he called, his voice losing its authoritative tone at the sight of his fleeing squad. "That's the Underwater Reactor!! Come back!!" He ran after his squad.

The fleeing soldiers paid no attention to their angered captain. They'd had enough of taking his orders for one day, and after being drilled hard for more than half of the day, they were not in the mood to take on the rebels. They ran down to a lift at the end of the corridor and charged through, the captain still shouting after them.

Cloud and his friends gave chase, but the lift door slid shut and cut them off from the soldiers. The lift hummed as it started to rise, taking the soldiers back to the upper levels of the Shinra building. Cait squeezed past Cloud and used the Mog's chunky fist to push the button next to the door. There was nothing they could do about the escaped soldiers; it was better if they just hurried on before reinforcements arrived.

They waited for the lift to arrive. While they waited, Red XIII ran back up the corridor and sniffed the air to see if any more soldiers were approaching via the stairs. He caught the faint scent of a soldier on the floor above them, but the scent was fading; the soldier was moving away from them. There were no unusual scents from outside, either. Satisfied, he padded back to the others just as the lift arrived.

There were two soldiers standing inside, their backs to the group as they busied themselves with eyeing up a beautiful young woman who was also using the lift. The woman, who was a lab technician, wore a bored, slightly irritated expression; she was obviously used to this sort of thing. When the doors opened the two soldiers turned and jumped, startled. Then they recovered and reached for their guns.

"How 'bout whoever stays alive," one of the soldiers said to his comrade, "gets to take her out?"

The other soldier looked at the rebels, and smirked. "All right, you're on!!" he said. He looked at the rebels again and his smirk turned into a worried frown. "But… what if both of us…"

"Whoa!!" said the first soldier, looking at the rebels. "Don't even talk about that!"

The two soldiers stepped out of the lift. That was as far as they got, for the moment their feet touched the corridor floor, two gunshots sounded, and the two soldiers fell to the ground. There were large dents in their helmets where the shots had skimmed past, close enough to stun, but not enough to kill them.

Vincent sheathed his gun and stepped over the slumped bodies of the two soldiers. He glanced at the young lab technician. She looked up at him anxiously and held her clipboard close to her chest, relieved for their intervention but anxious as to what they would do next. Vincent walked past her and leaned against the back wall.

The others piled in after him, casting the woman warm glances to assure her they would not do anything to her—so long as she did not interfere with their mission. It was a tight fit inside the lift; they were forced to cram close together so they could all fit inside. Cait left his Mog and climbed onto Cid's shoulder, clinging to his shirt as reached down and pushed another button on the wall. The doors closed and the lift started to descend.

A minute later the lift reached the bottom. Tifa was closest to the door, so she squeezed out first to check the coast was clear. As she stepped out she was greeted with the sound of a dog barking. She turned and saw a large dog standing in an open doorway. The dog's ears were flattened against its head, and it growled angrily at the scent of the intruders. There was a Shinra soldier standing beside the dog. Seeing Tifa, the soldier pulled out a gun and ran forward to block her.

"Okay! Back to work!! Back to work!!" he commanded sharply.

Tifa wondered who he was talking to, but then a second soldier ran up from the door at the other end of the corridor. This soldier must have just woken up from a nap, for his helmet was not clipped on properly, and he yawned loudly as he ran up to join his comrade.

"Yawn… I'm sleepy!!" the soldier complained, clumsily drawing his gun.

"For Junon!!" shouted the first soldier, and he ran forward to challenge Tifa. He lowered his rifle and made a swipe at her with his fist. Quickly she raised her arms to defend herself, and as she did so the soldier raised his gun and rammed the point of the barrel hard into her torso, just beneath her diaphragm. He shoved her up against the wall, and she coughed, breathless, unable to take an inward breath.

When Barret saw Tifa get shoved callously up against the wall, he cursed and tried to force his way out of the lift to help her. Unfortunately they were so tightly packed together that his struggling just made things worse and he couldn't get anywhere.

Only Red XIII managed to squeeze his way out of the lift. He heard Tifa cry out as the soldier dug the barrel point further into her ribs. Quickly Red XIII dived at the soldier and snapped his jaws, closing them around the soldier's leg. The soldier cried out and backed away from Tifa, kicking his leg as he tried to throw the hound off. Red XIII maintained his grip and yanked, tearing muscle. The soldier screamed and clutched at his injured leg, his uniform becoming stained with blood.

His job done, Red XIII released the soldier and turned his back on him. The soldier staggered out of the way, while his comrade could only stare and watch. The hound turned his attention to the guard dog, which was still barking inside the open doorway. Red XIII bared his bloodstained fangs and snarled menacingly at the dog, trying to stare it down. The dog continued to bark at him, but it made no attempt to leave the safety of the doorway.

Tifa had dropped to the floor when the soldier had backed away from her, and had only just got her breath back. She rose to her knees, rubbing her bruised ribs. The second soldier was fully alert now and ran past his staggering comrade, hoping to knock her down again before she could react, and use her as a hostage to prevent the others from attacking. Unfortunately, his plan did not work, for Tifa swung her first in an upward arc, catching the soldier on the jaw. There was a sickening crunch as bone shattered. He, too, dropped his rifle, cradling his broken jaw.

It was at this point that the others finally managed to squeeze their way out of the lift, with Barret, of course, in the lead. The ex-resistance leader growled and raised his gun-arm to finish the soldiers off, but was stopped when Cait placed a gloved paw on his arm. Annoyed, Barret turned to face him. The cat simply shook his head. There was no point in killing the soldiers; their wounds meant they would not be going anywhere. Reluctantly Barret lowered his arm and turned his gaze from them. Cait gave the man a comforting pat on the shoulder, and then led the Mog down the corridor after Cloud and the others.

They made their way through the lower levels of the Shinra building, moving as quickly as they dared, for they did not want to draw the attention of any other soldiers in the complex. They went on until they came to a second lift identical to the one by the Junon entrance. They piled on, and the lift began to descend.

It was a much longer trip down this time as this lift took its riders far below water level, to the ocean floor. The group knew when they went below water level, for the sound of the lift's hum became thick and dull, with no echo from outside. The further they descended the greater the air pressure became, and their ears began to pop. Yuffie fell to her knees, overcome with a sudden wave of nausea. Tifa knelt beside her, rubbing her shoulders gently.

It was a relief when the lift finally came to a stop at the bottom. Cait stepped off the platform first, him being the only one not affected by the change in air pressure. Smirking at the pale, queasy faces of the others, he directed the Mog over to a control panel beside the door. He punched a code into the panel (it was a nightmare to find out, he told them), the doors slid open noisily, and they stepped through.

Their sickness was forgotten the moment they stepped through the door, for the sight that lay on the other side was so astounding that, for a moment, it took their breath away. Even Yuffie forgot about her motion-sickness and stepped out of the lift, her eyes wide in wonder.

They stepped out directly onto the ocean floor, into a long tunnel made entirely of glass. The tunnel stretched out ahead of them, winding along the natural curve of the ocean floor all the way to the Underwater Reactor.

Tifa walked up to the glass wall and placed her palm against it. Though they were quite far down beneath the surface of the ocean, a little sunlight had managed to make its way down and give a little light to the landscape outside, though the tunnel provided more than enough light to see by.

It was truly beautiful out there; more beautiful than she could ever have imagined. The water was wonderfully clear, with a faint blue sheen near the surface, caused by the light that was reflected by the sun. Sea life swam in abundance this far down; more kinds than she had ever known to exist.

Yet, even here, the beauty of the ocean was marred by the presence of the reactor. The ocean floor was dark and grey in patches. There was only a small amount of plant-life down here; the fishes were poking through the sandy floor to find food. The few bits of coral that grew here were faded in colour, and many had broken apart as their life was sucked out of them.

Tifa raised her gaze, and in the distance she thought she saw Mr. Dolphin, Priscilla's seabound friend, swimming through the water away from the reactor. Would the day come when even Mr. Dolphin could not swim here? Not if they could help it.

Cid stepped up beside her and tapped the glass with his spear, breaking Tifa out of her thoughts.

"This thing…" he said hesitantly, "…it is safe, ain't it?"

"Oh, yes." Cait hopped past them, making his way down the glass tunnel. "That glass is about nine inches thick, practically impregnable. Nothing could break through it." He walked on a few steps, and then stopped. He tapped his head thoughtfully. "Well, except for Weapon, maybe," he said. "But what are the chances of that happening?" He carried on without looking back, smirking to himself.

The others watched him go. They glanced out through the glass, each one fancying they could see Weapon swimming in the darkness of the ocean towards the reactor. Yuffie then groaned and keeled over, feeling her sickness return in force.

Cloud tried to push away the seed of anxiety that Cait had surreptitiously planted and turned to the others. "Let's just move on, shall we?" he said, hoping he sounded as confident as he was trying to be.

The others nodded slowly; Barret gulped noisily. They began to walk cautiously down the tunnel, trying to keep their attention focused on the mission at hand. Nevertheless, their eyes could not help but be drawn towards the ocean; to the fleeting shadows that danced between the faint rays of sunlight. Suddenly the ocean seemed a much darker, less beautiful place. Now it just seemed… deadly.

They hurried on to the reactor.

A NOTE FROM THE AUTHORESS

I redid the ending to this chapter, hence the re-upload. I didn't like the ending; it bugged me, so I redid it. It's what happens when you rush to get something finished.

Also, I have a funny story. A couple of weeks ago I fainted at work and banged my thigh really hard against my bin. (I was dehydrated, if anyone's interested.) The bruise that came up from that… looked exactly like the FF7 symbol. I HAD METEOR ON MY LEG! Is that fate or what? 8D