Sorry for the ridiculous wait for this chapter. All I can say about this chapter is buckle up, and there is some gore later on.
The blond lay on the not so comfortable bed and stared at the ceiling, not really seeing it. He was deep in thought about many things. How he had survived the fall from the Reactor, who that pink haired woman was, why she seemed familiar, and why she stired feelings of absolute hatred and fury in him. It made no sense to the warrior. He had no memory of the pink haired SOLDIER Operative but he felt like he knew her. All he was sure of was he had to get back to Sector Seven, find Tifa, and find out more about the pink haired SOLDIER.
Cloud swung his legs off the bed and grabbed the Buster Sword, the sword his friend Zack Fair passed to him with his dying breath. Quietly he made his way out of the house that belong to the flower girl, Aerith, and her mother. Without pause or any breaks he made his through the Sector Five slums towards the giant concrete wall that separated Sector Five from Sector Six. The blond warrior was more than surprised when he saw Aerith at the hole in the wall, waiting for him.
"Aerith? How-" Cloud sputtered, not being able to wrap his head around how she got here first.
"It's about time you got here. I've been waiting for almost twenty minutes," Aerith said with a smile and a giggle. She was amusing herself by trying to sound stern. Cloud felt like an idiot, she had been expecting him to leave and left first to meet him.
"Well if you're coming along, stay close," Cloud told her as he walked through the hole in the wall.
After finding their way to Sector Six, Cloud and Aerith stopped at the small playground that was just as dusty and gray as the rest of the city below the Midgar plate. The duo made small talk but Cloud's mind was worlds away. He was still wrapped up in his thoughts on the pink haired warrior. She had known Zack, and wore the uniform of a SOLDIER First but he still had no idea who she was. Is it possible Zack had introduced them? If the former raven haired warrior had, Cloud could not remember it. The whole thing was starting to infuriate the blond,
"Cloud?" Aerith asked as she lightly shook his arm.
"Hm?" Cloud grunted as he looked at her.
"You looked angry and confused. Something on your mind?"
"Nothing important," the blond stated as he looked away from the bright green eyes of the brunette.
The bulkhead separating Sector Six and Seven behind them started to open with a roar as the motor came to life. The giant steel shutter screeched as it was dragged across the aged track in the ground making the blond and brunette wince. Through the gap came a chocobo drawn carriage, Aerith immediately recognized it as the one that belonged to Don Corneo. As the cart turned down a side path, the bulkhead started to close with the same roar and screeching, Cloud and Aerith noticed a woman standing in the back of the carriage dressed in a very revealing dark blue outfit. Aerith felt sorry for the woman being taken to the Don's mansion but Cloud instantly recognized her face.
"Tifa!" Cloud shouted as he climbed off the dome above the slide he and Aerith had been sitting on. Aerith was right on his tail.
"You know her?" Aerith asked curiously.
"Where is that cart going?" Cloud nearly shouted at the flower girl.
"The Don's mansion," With that, Cloud was racing after it.
The duo lost sight of the cart when they entered the slum town of Wall Market. Aerith directed Cloud towards the mansion where Don Corneo lived, knowing Cloud was intending on tearing the place apart. However, when they reached the mansion, Cloud stopped dead in his tracks. There was a near battalion of armed men standing guard just outside of the front doors. The blond knew that trying to break in was far more than stupid.
"Great. Now how am I-"
"A disguise!" Aerith stated cheerfully to Cloud. He threw the brunette a cautious questioning look "Although, it will be funny to see you in a dress."
"What?" Cloud just about shouted.
"Have another idea about getting in there?" Aerith motioned towards the mansion and Cloud sighed in defeat.
"This stays between us," Cloud warned Aerith, the unspoken threat very clear in his tone.
Tifa followed the driver of the cart through the covered courtyard of the Don's mansion and briefly wondered why there was a hole in the roof as she looked around. She hated herself for going with this plan and was starting to worry that she had made the wrong choice. When she entered the actual mansion, the brawler was dumbfounded. It was well lit, very clean, and the design was just like the buildings in Wutai. Just beside the door was a desk with another man standing behind it, almost like a receptionist.
"Well, aren't you a fine piece of ass," The man at the desk said proudly. Tifa looked at him, trying very hard not send him through a wall and had to try much harder when she saw he was shamelessly staring at her chest "You know where to take her," the desk man said to the one leading Tifa.
The brawler was lead up the stairs opposite the desk and then taken to the farthest door. The man opened the door and motioned for her to go in. Tifa only saw a stone staircase leading down, really far down, that was poorly lit. Carefully taking each step, Tifa descended the stairs and the worried feeling had grew into something just short of terror.
The room looked far too similar to a dungeon for Tifa's comfort. On one side of the room were large cages,shackles attached to the brick wall by a chain, and chains attached to collars hanging on hooks. The other side of the room had all manner of really disturbing machines that were meant for a very different kind of torture. Along the same wall were shackles that were attached directly to the wall and just over the top of one of the machines, Tifa spotted a pair of hands locked into a pair of the shackles.
Disbelief and shock crossed the brawlers face when she saw the pink haired operative from the Reactor, from Nibelheim. Tifa knelt down and placed her hands on the soldier's face to gently force her to make eye contact. The soldier's eyes slowly opened and from the dilation of her pupils, and the unfocused stare, the brawler knew instantly she was heavily drugged.
"Serah?" the soldier slurred "Wait, you're not Serah. Who are you?"
"Tifa," she was not sure why she responded, it was unlikely the soldier would remember anything after sobering up "I'm gonna get you out of here... somehow."
Glancing down, Tifa saw that the soldier was only wearing a black sports bra and tight black short shorts. She assumed Corneo's men took her clothes and weapon but Tifa was positive that if the SOLDIER Operative were to become sober, she could fight her way with her bare fists. Tifa scanned the room for anything that might let her break the shackles but did not see anything that could be useful.
"Well Tifa," the soldier sounded strangely cheerful "I am Lighting – er – Light-Ning, and your shirt is WAY to small for you," Tifa smirked at the soldiers amused tone.
After several minutes of searching for something to break the lock to the shackles, Tifa found nothing that would be even remotely helpful. She decided to just sit next to and try to comfort the drugged soldier, that clearly had no clue what was going on. Some pressure on her arm made Tifa look over and saw that the soldier had fallen asleep and was leaning against her to get somewhat comfortable.
The door to the dungeon like room banged open and two people were making their way down the stairs. Tifa gently awakened the soldier and got to her feet just as the two newcomers reached the foot of the stairs. One of them was a young woman with long chestnut brown hair, and a low cut red dress. The other was a young woman with lemon blond hair and a blue dress, but there was something very strange about the blond to Tifa. It took her several moments to figure out what it was and a few minutes to work through her disbelief.
"Cloud?" Tifa asked. The slight blush rising into the 'woman's' cheeks told her she was right about her suspicion.
There was something deeply disturbing about Cloud's disguise to Tifa. With some make up, lip gloss, mascara, and long hair, Cloud looked almost just like the soldier shackled to the wall. That was when a very important fact jumped forward in Tifa's mind. She grabbed Cloud's arm and pulled him over to where he could see Claire and the Tifa felt his arm tense when he saw her.
"Cloud, we have to help her," Tifa told her blond friend.
"What?" Cloud looked like Tifa had just asked him to chop off his right arm "Tifa, she works for the Shinra, she's our enemy."
"So it's okay to just leave her here?"
Before Cloud could reply, the door opened once again and footsteps were heard on the stairs. One of Corneo's men entered the dungeon, walked with purpose over to Claire, unlocked the shackles and pulled her to her feet. He made eye contact with Tifa, Aerith, and Cloud before motioning to the door.
"It is time ladies," his voice was deep and rough.
The five ascended the stairs and entered the Don's office. There the three women and Cloud were lined up shoulder to shoulder, with Claire on the end being held up by the man that retrieved them. Don Corneo got up from his desk, walked up to them, and closely examined them like he was comparing different vehicles. After several minutes of walking back and forth in front of the women, and Cloud, and carefully examining them, Corneo made his choice.
"I'm going to take this dark haired beauty," Corneo motioned for Tifa to step forward "And the SOLDIER member," Claire lazily looked up at the overweight blonde man "You boys can have the blond and the one in red."
Corneo ushered Tifa into the back room and helped Claire walk in to the room. Cloud and Aerith were guided out of the office by the other two men and then sent to different rooms. Cloud was guided into a room with several men on a few couches and instantly had several unpleasant images fly through his head about what happened to women in this room.
The moment the door was shut, Cloud spun and slammed his fist into the jaw of the man that escorted him. Right after, Cloud crouched low to dodge a punch from a man that charged at him and used his leg to sweep the man's legs, making him fall to the floor with a thud. He then pushed himself up and performed a back flip to kick a charging man in the face and when he landed, spun to punch another man in the eye. The last two men on their feet looked to each then at Cloud and together they reached into the coats and started to pull out guns. Cloud quickly ran at one man, grabbed him, and threw him at the other man. They landed in a tangle of limbs and struggled to get up but before they could, Cloud walked up and kicked each in the face, knocking them out. The blond looked around and was thankful for his superior strength, without it, the fight would have taken longer and he most likely would have lost.
Cloud pulled the wig off his head and ripped the dress in two before leaving the room to retrieve the Buster Sword. The two guards at the front door were no problem for Cloud and the sturdy doors. After grabbing the Buster Sword from its hiding place, Cloud ran back in to help Aerith but saw her standing outside the Don's office. He gave her a confused look and she said she just ran away from the man that had taken her and pushed him down the stairs. When Cloud looked, he just saw a crumbled, bloody, body at the foot of the concrete stairs. He had to admit, it was a simple but effective way to get rid of someone.
The duo charged through the Don's office to the back room and were stunned by surprise. The pink haired woman was sitting on the floor leaning against the large bed, rubbing her face as the drugs started to wear off. And on the bed was Tifa and the Don but the Don was face down with Tifa holding him down in a choke hold and holding one arm in a position to break his shoulder.
"Might want to help her get dressed," Tifa said referring to Claire, exhaustion thick in her voice as the Don had been fighting her for a long time.
Cloud and Aerith spotted the black SOLDIER uniform in the corner of the room along with a strange looking sword and a boxy sheath. Once the pink haired SOLDIER Operative was clothed Tifa released Corneo and stood with the others, facing him. Cloud took the Buster Sword off his back and pointed it at Corneo.
"You're Shinra's informant, do you know anything about Avalanche?" Cloud demanded.
"I-I was hired to find out about the man with the gun arm! I don't know anything else!" Corneo sounded frightened but Tifa knew he knew more than he let on.
"Tell us more or I will smash them," Tifa growled. Corneo's eyes looked ready to jump out of his skull.
"I told the Shinra where Avalanche's base was!"
"What!" Tifa shouted "What are they going to do?"
"I don't know, they don't tell me anything!"
"Tell us or I will rip them off," Aerith threatened in an innocent tone, making her seem partially insane. It had a strong effect on Corneo, who actually looked down at his groin in horror.
"Shinra's gonna drop Sector Seven! They're gonna destroy the support pillar!" Corneo shouted.
"What?" Tifa nearly whispered in horror "Cloud, we have to go now!" Cloud nodded to Tifa and placed the Buster Sword on his back.
"Wait! There is something else..." Corneo said to get their attention.
As they looked towards Corneo, the overweight blond man flipped a switch on his bed post and the floor at their feet fell away. Just as the floor started to move, Claire felt the tranquilizing drugs leave her system and full control of her body and mind came back. She sprung to the side just as the floor fully opened beneath the blond warrior and the two brunette women. The three fell down and Claire landed beside the trap hole. The pinkette drew her weapon, switched it into gun-mode, and pointed it at Corneo, who had a look of utter surprise on his flabby face.
"Don Corneo," Claire started in a deadly tone "You just gave secret information to enemies of Shinra and attempted to sexually assault a First Class SOLDIER Operative."
Claire knew she was supposed to arrest the man currently staring down the barrel of her weapon but she did not move to do anything. She continued to look into the blond man's terrified eyes and felt her finger twitch on the trigger. Then she heard something, not from anywhere around her, but from her mind, the voice of a man and a woman speaking in unison.
He is just a parasite. Kill him.
"You are no longer useful to Shinra," Claire pulled the trigger and the wall behind Corneo was sprayed with red. The blond man fell to his bed, a small round hole in the middle of his forehead, and Claire slowly lowered her weapon and slipped it back into the sheath "Pathetic fat bastard," Claire said to herself before turning and leaving. She knew that her best way to get back onto the plate, Sector Seven would be her best bet.
"Do you think they're okay?" The dark haired bar tender asked the blond giant.
"I really do hope so," Snow replied before taking a sip of the beer in his hand.
"We haven't heard anything from them in two days," Gadot stated "They probably got caught by Shinra."
"They haven't been caught," Serah replied quickly, too quickly in her opinion "Shinra would have announced that they caught the evil Avalanche."
"You got a good point there, girlie," Lebreau agreed, poking fun at Serah.
Suddenly the door to the bar banged open revealing Maqui and Yuj. The short blond almost fell down and the man with blue dyed hair almost trampled the kid. Everyone inside the bar, which was only Snow, Lebreau, Gadot, and Serah at this time of day, looked over at the two that just barged in. At the same time, Serah's phone vibrated to tell her she received a text message.
"Guys, you have to come see this!" Maqui shouted as he pulled himself off the floor of Lebreaus Cafe/Bar.
The group followed the youngest member out of the Cafe and through the streets. As they walked Serah looked at the message she received and was worried the moment she saw the words: Get out of Sector 7 ASAP! It was obvious nothing good was going to happen soon. When the group reached where Maqui and Yuj were leading them, they all saw a massive crowd at one of the many openings in the wall of Sector Seven. The crowd was yelling at someone, trying to figure out what was going on and Snow was a great aid in fighting towards the front of the crowd where they saw a line of Shinra militia standing shoulder to shoulder with their assault rifles pointed and ready to fire at the crowd. Serah noticed not one soldier was on the Sector Seven side of the joint in the road.
"People of Sector Seven, return to your homes! Due to the terrorist attacks, the Mayor of Midgar has enforced a curfew! Please return to your homes where you are safe!" A voice yelled over a megaphone.
"This isn't right!" Lebreau shouted just to be heard by the others.
"I know!" Snow shouted back.
"Do you actually think this is about Avalanche!" Yuj asked the group.
A couple of hours later
She was having a hard time believing that she was currently working towards helping drop the Sector Seven plate. But as she made her way up the stairs, some words from Sephiroth echoed through her mind.
"Claire, there is something I need to tell you," Sephiroth started with his calm tone, motioning to a chair in front of him. Claire took the hint and sat down then Sephiroth bent down on one knee so he was looking straight into her eyes "One day, could be tomorrow, could be years from now, Shinra is going to ask you to do something that goes completely against everything I taught you. When that happens, you must make a choice. Will you choose the few or the many?" the question confused Claire and Sephiroth saw that "Will you side with your morality and turn against Shinra to defend civilians that see us as freaks, or will you cast aside your morals to obey Shinra and keep Serah safe?"
Those words from when Claire first joined SOLDIER was the only reason she was appraoching the top of the stairs. If dropping Sector Seven would Serah safe from Shinra, she would do it without a second thought. When she pulled herself out of her thoughts, she noticed she was on the round platform at the top of the stairs and there were only two more enemies.
Claire flipped backwards, firing several rounds at the duo she was fighting. She did not like where she was fighting, at the top of the staircase built on the side of the pillar under Sector Seven. The pinkette had already disposed of the two that had been on the actual stairs, the girl with the cowboy hat and the dark haired man with hairband, and now she was down to the chubby man with the baseball cap and the large dark skinned man with the gun arm.
As she charged again, several shots passed through the air beside her as she lunged sideways to avoid having her torso ripped open by the bullets. As the chubby man started to reload, she ran up to him with her far superior speed, grabbed him and simply threw him at the railing. She slightly misjudged her throw and the chubby man wound up hitting the railing and flipping over it, doomed to a long fall to his death. Just as the chubby man went over the railing the dark skinned man turned to see it.
"Wedge!" Barret shouted before letting out a feral roar and firing a volley of rounds at Claire.
As the pinkette dodged the volley, she heard the sound of a helicopter rotor approaching. As the helicopter got closer Barret looked between the vehicle and the pink haired soldier several times. The sound of feet clanging up the stairs caught Claire's attention and she saw the blond warrior and brunette from earlier. Without thinking, Claire spoke.
"What are you doing here?" Claire and Cloud asked at the same time.
Before either warrior could answer, the helicopter swooped in and a man in a disheveled suit with vibrant red hair jumped down the platform near the computer. He quickly got to his feet, took the last two steps toward the computer, and hit a few buttons.
"Mission Accomplished!" the red haired man shouted to no one.
"We have to stop it!" Tifa shouted. After Tifa spoke, Claire flipped Blaze Edge into gun-mode and fired several rounds into the computer. The helicopter flew in close and the red haired man took a look around at everyone.
"Well, uh, see ya!" he shouted before sprinting and jumping to the helicopter. A moment after the red haired man slipped inside a black haired man in a suit appeared, Claire immediately recognized Tseng, and Barret raised his gun arm.
"I would not suggest that," Tseng stated as he slid the door open more, revealing Aerith.
"Don't worry! She's safe!" Aerith shouted when she saw Cloud and Tifa. Tseng turned and slapped her to make stay quiet.
"Farron, I suggest you join me up here," Tseng said before sitting back down.
Claire looked at Barret, Tifa and Cloud before slipping Blaze Edge into its case. She turned, ran, and jumped to the helicopter just as it started to fly away. As she settled into her seat, Claire heard the thunderous crack of the pillar coming apart and forced herself not to think about what was going to happen soon.
Serah was frantically thinking about how she was going to get by the troops guarding the entrance to Sector Six. The only thing she had marking her as a Shinra employee was the special phone but that would not get her out of Sector Seven. AS she was wracking her brain trying to think of something, the ground suddenly dropped two inches. The entire crowd fell down and went silent.
In perfect unison, the crowd got to their feet, looked around, and as the reality sunk in, the all started to yell and charge the line of soldiers. The only people not charging were NORA and Serah. The crowd pushed down the fences that had been erected across the road and as they approached the soldiers, Serah heard one word she really did not want to hear.
"Fire!" the voice on the megaphone shouted, and the dozens of semi-automatic assault rifles held by the soldiers popped to life.
Snow grabbed Serah, spun to shield her from the gun fire, and made her crouch down. As bullets raced through the air and peppered the pavement, screams filled the air along with adrenaline fueled feral roars. The ground trembled and dropped another few inches, raising a alarm of imminent danger in NORA.
"Let's go! Now!" Lebreau shouted to the other members of NORA. When they looked up they saw the crowd had actually been able to break the line of soldiers.
Just as the NORA group, except Snow, climbed up onto the road going into Sector Six, the ground of Sector Seven, fell six feet then stopped. Several buildings throughout Sector Seven could be heard collapsing from the movement along with the sound of metal groaning from stress and stretching. Gadot and Yuj reached down for Snow while Lebreau, Serah, and Maqui went to help others that had not been able to make it. Just as Snow was pulled up, the groans of the metal turned into snaps, pops, and tearing, and the great steel wall enclosing Sector Seven came down at an alarming speed. The NORA group fled from the edge of the road and watched in horror as the top of the gate effortlessly sheered straight through several people that had been climbing up, their human bodies no match for the thousands of tons of steel and concrete. Less than a few seconds later, Secotor Seven crashed onto the ground, obliterating anything and everything underneath it and making every building on top collapse into a pile of steel, stone, and glass.
Not being able to stare at the void that used to be Sector Seven, Serah looked at everyone else. The NORA group and horror and disbelief on their faces as well as every other person in the area, including the soldiers. The only sound Serah could hear was her thundering heart, her ragged breathing, and the occasional piece of metal bouncing off of one of the countless beams that helped support Sector Seven. No one else was fighting or even talking but momentarily, the people started to recover somewhat. Serah heard many people muttering about Avalanche, many started to sob or bawl, and others fell to their knees and were silenced by what happened.
"They can't get away with this," Lebreau growled through tears.
"We won't let them," Gadot growled as well.
"W-what are w-we going to do?" Serah choked out. She was trying, and failing, to not cry. Snow silently turned away from the massive hole and looked towards the Shinra building.
"We hit them where they live," Snow said in the darkest tone she had ever heard from him.
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