CHAPTER 27: AFTERMATH

Extracts from the minutes of the emergency meeting of the Shinra Electric Company Board of Directors, 2nd October 2002.

Present - President Shinra, Vice-President Rufus, Palmer, Scarlett, Heidegger, Tuesti; Tseng, at the invitation of the President

Apologies: Veld, Hojo

Item 1.1 Report on Nibelheim Incident

Tseng of the Investigative Affairs Section of the Department of Administrative Research was invited to give a verbal report on the incident at Nibelheim that took place on the 1st inst. …

… Item 1.12 Reconstruction of Nibelheim

Heidegger proposed that responsibility for the reconstruction of Nibelheim be undertaken by the Department for Urban Development. Scarlet seconded motion. Tuesti objected that this would create significant setbacks in the schedule for the completion of Sector 6, even if additional funds were allocated for the project. Further discussion ensued, off the record. On the record, Palmer invited Tuesti to consider tendering his resignation; Tuesti declined the invitation. Motion passed nem con, one abstention. President provisionally accepted motion, amending it to read 'the Department for Urban Development shall carry out the work under the supervision of the Department of Administrative Research'.

Item 1.13 Date for completion of reconstruction

President set date for completion of Nibelheim reconstruction as 15th November 2002….

… Item 4.1 Future of SOLDIER

Scarlett proposed that the temporary transfer of responsibility for SOLDIER to the Department of Public Safety Maintenance be confirmed as a permanent subsumption of SOLDIER within the regular armed forces. Palmer seconded the motion. Motion passed nem con, one abstention. President accepted motion….

Surveillance Duty

Aerith sings to herself as she waters the flowers, and sometimes shakes her hips a little, imagining she's dancing.

Tseng sits quietly in the rafters, watching her. He's never done this before. He's always come in through the front door. But he wants to treasure this image of her, his happy girl, in the little time she has left before he breaks the news.

The official announcement is coming out today. Killed in action. He knows he has to tell her first; and though he cannot tell her everything, what he can tell her will be the truth.

He sacrificed himself to save others.

Then what?

After a while it won't hurt so much.

There'll be other boys. Other loves.

You'll get over it, you'll survive.

I'm sorry….

What can he say that won't make her despise him?

Meanwhile, on the 66th floor of the tall building far, far above Tseng's head, Reno sits facing the Chief, and he says, "I'm not asking where she is, sir. I don't want to know. I'm just saying she shouldn't have to hear it on the news. You need to tell her. And you need to tell her about Mozo."

Shinra Electric Company Press Release, 3rd October 2002

Two days ago the terrorist group AVALANCHE launched an attack on the mako reactor in Nibelheim, resulting in lengthy power outages in those areas relying on supplies from Shinra Number One. An attempt was also made to burn down the town, and a number of monsters were set loose on the innocent townspeople. It is our sad duty to announce that the Hero of the Wutai War, General Sephiroth, and SOLDIER 1st Class Zack Fair lost their lives defending the people of Nibelheim from this senseless outrage. Thanks to their heroic sacrifice, casualties were kept to a minimum, though some slight damage to the fabric of the town was sustained. President Shinra has taken the people of Nibelheim under his direct protection and will ensure that all necessary steps for their comfort and wellbeing are put in place. However, until the full extent of the damage has been confirmed, and until it can be ascertained that all monsters have been cleared from the surrounding mountains, the town of Nibelheim has been placed under quarantine. Communication services in and out of Nibelheim have been suspended until further notice. People concerned for families or friends who may be in Nibelheim are encouraged to call this number…

In Corel there was a cheap hotel overlooking the coal train tracks. In this cheap hotel there was a small back bedroom, and in this small back bedroom a dark-haired girl and a wiry old man were watching the news on a grainy black and white TV. She was lying in the bed, her broken ankle propped up on a pillow. All over her body bruises were ripening from purple to green. It had cost Zangan most of the gil in his wallet to have the sword slash down her chest sewn together and cured with a potion; there'd been no money left over to treat injuries that would heal on their own. He was sitting cross-legged in the middle the floor, his back perfectly straight from a lifetime of martial arts training. He'd told her she was lucky she hadn't died. She wasn't so sure.

She'd learnt a lot of things this last week or so; she'd grown up fast. For starters, she'd learnt there was no such thing as a hero. For another, she'd finally learnt to let go of that childhood dream. Friends moved away, moved on, forgot the promises they'd made. Nobody was going to come and rescue her. Zangan had brought her this far; he had saved her skin, she supposed – saved her beating heart, saved her charged mind, saved her skills and her memories. She couldn't really say, though, that her old teacher had saved her life. That was buried under the ashes of Nibelheim. She'd have to begin a new one now.

She didn't need Zangan to tell her that there was no point in opening her mouth to expose the lies. No one would want to believe her. And if she got too loud, drew too much attention to herself, they'd find her, those steel-eyed people in the dark blue suits.

But now she knew one more thing. She'd just found it out. She knew the name of her enemy's enemy. That was a start.

Veld kept his Turks busy in the weeks that followed, assigning them missions that would once have fallen to SOLDIER. He partnered Turks who had been in Nibelheim with those who had not, and sent them into the Sector Seven slums to clear out nests of monsters, or down to the marine caves in Mideel to look for naturally occurring materia, or across to Gongaga to eliminate a flock of Genesis copies, or into South Corel to pursue AVALANCHE sightings. He flew them to Icicle Inn to help rescue the survivors of a real, and equally deadly, avalanche; he sent them off to Bone Village to dig for Ancient artefacts; he had them unloading crates of ammunition on the docks at Junon, giving master classes at the Academy, re-organising the filing, learning to pilot submarines, surveying the woods south of Junon, anything and everything he could think of. If they still had time on their hands, he put them through their paces in the SIM room on what had been the SOLDIER floor, or flew them far out into the badlands and made them orienteer their way back to Midgar. At night they fell into their beds exhausted.

And though they all knew that Mozo was dead, somehow, even for those who had been with him when he died, it didn't quite seem real. He could as easily have been out on a mission. They knew he wasn't coming back – and yet sometimes they thought they saw him going down the corridor, or getting into the elevator. And sometimes one of them would see his bushy head of brown hair walking through a crowded street, and would hurry to catch him up, to grab his shoulder and laugh and say, hey, I knew it couldn't be true. I just knew it.

But he always eluded their touch, like the ghost that he was.

.

With Mozo dead, Skeeter was assigned to help Rude and Reno complete the set-up of the bunker's communications system. He didn't have Mozo's skills with wires and screwdrivers, but he was determined to learn. At nearly nineteen, Skeet was no longer the pretty boy he'd been two years ago when he joined the Turks. He had grown taller, and his shoulders had filled out. His jaw was leaner, his nose broader, his brow heavier. Hard work and hard living had rubbed the blush from his cheeks. His curls, though, were still golden.

One day in the middle of December – it might have been morning, or afternoon, or midnight; they lost all track of time inside the plate and just kept working until Tseng called them home or they were too tired to go on – the three of them were on a break, eating sandwiches they'd bought at a stall on the way in, and drinking coffee from a thermos Rosalind had filled, when Skeeter, looking round the windowless concrete space, laughed and said, "Shit, it's like being buried alive, isn't it? I sure pity whoever it is the Chief plans on keeping down in this airless hole. Is it for AVALANCHE prisoners, d'you think?"

Reno and Rude exchanged glances.

"Don't you get it, Skeet?" said Reno. "It's for us."

Skeeter's eyebrows shot up towards his hairline. "Us? But why? For what?"

"The Chief didn't say," said Rude. "But you never know. It's best to be prepared. Just in case."

Pages from Aviva's diary, 22nd December, 2002

Is it the work, or is it me?

I mean, is the work really getting dirtier? Or am I just seeing it more clearly? I never thought that Shinra was perfect. I always knew it would be like a bigger and shinier Corel. The difference is that what we're doing here isn't just about greed and money and power, even if it is about all of those things too. And I still believe that what we're doing here is worth doing. The more I see of AVALANCHE, the more deeply I believe it. Shinra can build a better future for everybody. But a lot of mistakes get made on the way. It's not easy.

I think about Mozo a lot. Would I have the courage to do what he did? I like to think I would. I guess everybody thinks that about themselves. But what if you're in that situation and you don't realize it? What if I've already been in a situation like that, and didn't know? With Dr Rayleigh I thought I was doing the right thing, but I know now that more than one person has died as a direct result of AVALANCHE getting that data disk.

I wish I could ask Mozo what he was thinking. I'm not supposed to know that it was Professor Hojo who killed him. I don't really know all the details. R told me a bit. He said that Hojo told Moe to do something and Moe said No. What thing? I asked. He said he couldn't tell me but I kept asking and finally he says, something wrong, OK, and now he's dead and Hojo got someone else to do it. And R said, Moe was the one telling me the first rule was never to get involved.

Maybe you've been wondering, Diary, why I don't write about R much any more. I would like to tell you it's because my feelings have changed. Sadly…

27th December

Special day today! Charlie was in town and he came to take me out to dinner like he always does, just him and me. I don't know why he's taken a shine to me. Maybe it's because I'm the baby of the office. Or maybe it's because he's kind of responsible for breaking my leg. R calls him my sugar daddy. I should be grateful R even notices that somebody wants my company. I'd like to think that R is just the teeniest, weeniest, tiniest bit jealous - not of me, I mean, but of our friendship. If that's what we are.

Anyway it isn't like that with me and Charlie. Or maybe it is kind of like what a dad would be. He makes me put on one of those dresses I never get to wear and takes me out to an expensive restaurant and he spoils me. He asks me about my boyfriends and when I tell him I don't have any he says nobody is good enough for Charlie's girl. He makes me laugh, the way R used to make me laugh when he was happy.

I talked to him about the dirty business stuff. About Mozo. I asked him if he knows what really happened with Moe and he said he knows as much as he needs to. He said that this is a war and that we were soldiers and that soldiers have to accept that they're going to see and do things they might not want or choose. Well, how could I forget him at Junon? He was having a blast, if you'll forgive the pun, dear diary. So I said, 'but you love it, Charlie, and Mr Tseng always says that we should take pride in our work, not pleasure'. And he said 'Tseng needs to learn how to let his hair down'. I shouldn't have laughed but I did.

After that, though, he got serious, and I want to write down what he said word for word so that I always remember it. He said, 'now you listen to old Charlie' (he always calls himself old but he can't really be that old. 37? 38?). 'I have dirtier hands than anybody', he said. 'All those years when I only did it for the money. But in this world nobody has clean hands either. It's only a matter of degree. The important thing is to pick the right side and to stick with it through thick and thin. It's no good saying, "I'll do this but I won't do that". You have to do whatever it takes. It's all or nothing. That's what it means to make a commitment to something bigger than yourself.'

I said, 'so why did you pick our side? Why do you stick with us?' He said, 'because of the Chief'. Which I totally understand.

After that he said he wasn't going to talk shop any more, and made me tell him about the new band I went to see with Hunter and Cavs…

.

While Aviva was busy writing this, Tseng and Charlie sat facing each other over two tall glasses of dry sherry. The end of Charlie's cigar glowed orange in the lamplit gloom of Augusto's den.

"I'm surprised it's Wutai," Tseng was saying. "I wouldn't have thought they would want to provoke us again so soon."

"Godo doesn't know," Charlie replied. "The AVALANCHE leadership have presented themselves to him as investors. Said they wanted to build a toy factory. He's put them up in the Pagoda. We'll have to rebuild it afterwards, of course, as a goodwill gesture."

"Next week, then?"

"That's the plan."

"And you're going alone?"

"I need a back-up," said Charlie. "I was hoping it would be you."

Tseng looked down at his folded hands, and took a while before he answered. "Did you speak to the Commander about this?"

"I thought I'd ask you first."

"Thank you. I'm flattered, but I'm the wrong choice. I'd stick out like a sore thumb."

"You! You even speak the language, don't you? Didn't Veld make you learn it?"

"Not like a native. I've never mastered the accent. I'd be stranger than a foreigner to them. They'd ask too many questions. I've never been to Wutai, Charlie, and I'd rather – I'd rather you took Knox. He could pass himself off as an ordinary tourist."

"Whatever you say." Charlie took a sip of his sherry. "You're the boss."

Neither of them spoke for a while. Charlie finished his glass and called the girl to pour him another. She brought them a bowl of salted nuts and put it on the table between them.

"You've done a remarkable job," Tseng observed.

Charlie grinned. "Sure, you can rely on the Legend."

"It was Reno who suggested you."

"So he has flashes of common sense, eh? How is he?"

"Surviving."

"Yes," said Charlie, "I know what that feels like. By the way, I wanted to talk to you about your little one. Aviva. I just had dinner with her. She's having some struggles with her conscience. Mozo's death has really got to her. She puts on that perky act, but she runs pretty deep. You need to keep an eye on her."

Tseng inclined his head, acknowledging the advice. Then he smiled his tight smile and said, "You know what never ceases to amaze me, Charlie? This knack you have for getting people to trust you."

Charlie laughed.

"No one else could have got anywhere near AVALANCHE," Tseng went on. "And now perhaps the end is in sight. Do you think this will finish them?"

Charlie allowed a mouthful of smoke to escape his lips. "Honestly? I think it'll hurt them pretty badly. But the end? I don't know. Is it ever the end? Human nature being what it is?"

Extracts from the Minutes of the Shinra Electric Company Board of Directors' Meeting, 4th January 2003

Present: President Shinra, Vice-President Rufus, Heidegger, Scarlet, Palmer, Tuesti, Veld, Hojo

Item 1: Destruction of AVALANCHE HQ, Wutai

Veld distributed a report on the successful completion of the mission to destroy the headquarters of the terrorist group, AVALANCHE, in Wutai.

Item 1.2: Commendation of Operatives

Veld recommended for special commendation the agent known as Legend, in recognition of his key role in the mission. VP Rufus seconded motion. Motion passed nem con. President accepted motion...

…Item 2.3: Compensation to Wutai

Veld proposed funds be set aside to pay for the reconstruction of the Sacred Pagoda destroyed in the mission against AVALANCHE. Tuesti seconded motion. Palmer argued against the motion on the grounds that all available funds were required by the space program, which is now in its final stages. Scarlet seconded Palmer, arguing that it was naïve to believe Lord Godo did not know he was giving shelter to terrorists. Motion was not put to the vote, as President imposed veto beforehand…

…Item 4.1: Reconstruction of Nibelheim

Tuesti reported the reconstruction of Nibelheim was completed slightly behind schedule, on the 20th December 2002. Bad weather had held up the works….

.

The news broadcasts that day were joyous, announcing a major victory against AVALANCHE and the beginning of the end of the war against terrorism. Down in the Goblins Bar, however, the boys and girls in the blue serge suits leaned closer round their corner table and reminded each other that nothing should ever be taken for granted.

Knox, who'd bought the first round, told them Charlie wasn't sure he'd succeeded in eliminating the key leaders. He'd killed three people who might have been Elfe, Shears, and Fuhito – but they were so far away from him when the explosion went off that it was impossible to tell for certain, and afterwards there wasn't enough left to make a positive identification.

"The woman was sick," Hunter chipped in. "I've met her. Remember?"

Knox nodded. "Charlie thought she looked like she was deteriorating – "

"Like Genesis?" suggested Cavour. "Maybe they used the same process on her that Hollander used with Genesis. Maybe they are connected."

"And that could be why they wanted the disk from Dr Rayleigh last year," Aviva added. "Maybe they thought it could cure her."

Reno swilled the dregs of his beer round the bottom of his glass. "As long as Charlie snuffed her, we're good. I'd settle for that right now."

"She did seem to be the glue holding the two men together," Knox agreed.

"When I fought them," Hunter chipped in, "She seemed to be all the big guy cared about."

Rude said hoarsely, "AVALANCHE…. "

Uttered like a curse, the word hung in the air. Round the table the others fell silent, waiting for him to finish the thought.

He said, "It's like – a cancer."

"You better believe it." Knox took up Rude's metaphor, "Leave one or two cells alive, and it'll come back deadlier than before. Have we really got rid of them? I guess we'll just have to wait and see."

Page from Aviva's diary, 3rd February, 2003

A guy in P.R. has asked me out on a date.

You may have noticed, diary, by the way I never mention them, that I don't get asked on lots of dates. Now I know I'm not the hottest girl in town, but to tell the truth, I'm not that bad, either. I even have boobs now. Small, but there. So I honestly don't think it's my ugly mug turning them away. None of us gets asked out much. I mean, us girl Turks. The suit puts guys off. I can't say I exactly blame them. It takes a lot of guts for a man to go up to a girl and ask for her number when he knows she's got a gun under her jacket and can shoot to kill.

Or maybe it is us who put them off, a bit. I get the feeling the other girls aren't that interested. Maybe Hunter is; I don't know what she gets up to when she stays out all night, but if she's got somebody, he's not in Shinra. I haven't seen her look twice at anyone in the building. Mink…does she even have those kind of feelings? And Roz says that part of her life died with Phil.

It's different for the guys. The secretaries and the receptionists are all over them. Even Mr Tseng - I mean, of course nobody flirts with him the way they do with the others. God, who'd dare? But I've seen how when he talks to them, they gaze at him all doe-eyed and transfixed like they're an animal caught in his headlights.

You can't blame the guys for taking advantage. They're only human.

But what really makes me so angry, and so sad, is when one of those girls from one of the other departments comes up to me and says, 'oh, you're so lucky to be working with those guys', and I think, you don't know anything, you just don't know.

So anyway, that was a bit off the topic of my date. If I go. I was in the exhibition room looking at the model of the Shinra 26, and this guy just comes up to me and goes, 'hi'. Which, as I said, doesn't happen often. So I said hi. We talked about the space program for a while – he's working on that account – and then he told me he knew my name and that his name was Louis and would I like to have dinner with him sometime, like maybe tomorrow? I think I might have accidentally said yes.

I ought to make the effort. He seems nice enough. Nice looking. Fair hair. Good teeth. Not tall, but taller than me (like who isn't?). Soft hands. Nice nice nicey-nice. But, sadly, nice just doesn't cut it. Not when you work with the kind of guys I work with. Not once you've known someone like R….

.

Moments from the Present: Work takes all forms

Commander Veld has finally arranged for Reno to give Rufus flying lessons.

"Heads up, V.P." says Reno as they climb together into the cockpit. "No way am I letting anyone else pilot this helicopter while I'm in it, unless and until I trust them one hundred and ten per cent to know what they're doing. So don't push it. I'll let you know when you're ready, not the other way round. Understood?"

"That should be by the end of the week," replies Rufus, "If you're any good as an instructor."

Meanwhile, down where the sky is just a bad dream, Tseng takes another letter from Aerith and turns it over in his hand. The envelope of this one is lilac-coloured, sealed with a stamp of ruby wax.

"I know you'd never read them," she says. "But I like the wax. It's pretty, don't you think?"

That makes twenty-six letters so far, one every week for the last six months, stacking up in a tray in a locked drawer of his desk. He has stopped objecting. "I don't want to make you a liar," she told him early on, "So let's not discuss it any more. Just take the letters. When you can, give them to him."

What does she know, exactly? How can she know?

He may have not told her the whole truth, but she is not being completely honest with him, either.

Meanwhile, high above the seething grey clouds, Reno is obliged to admit that his pupil has talent. The V.P's quick on the uptake: Reno doesn't have to tell him anything twice. Sometimes half an explanation is all he needs. His eyes miss nothing. At this rate, the target of flying solo by the end of the week isn't looking so unrealistic. And he seems to be enjoying himself, though with Rufus it's always hard to know exactly what 'fun' means.

However, after they've landed at the end of the lesson, an odd thing happens – such a little, trivial thing that if it had happened with anyone else Reno probably wouldn't even have noticed. On their way out of the helicopter, the V.P. stumbles, and Reno, ever the bodyguard, automatically reaches out to stop him falling. At the touch of Reno's hand on his arm, Rufus flinches as if he has been scalded, and his lips pull back in a snarl. It's over in a split-second; Rufus is immediately cool again, smoothing his sleeve before jumping down to the tarmac, disdaining all offers of assistance. Reno is left wondering if he only imagined he saw that look on Rufus' face. He isn't sure what to call it. Anger? Fear?

Meanwhile, Tseng walks to the Sector 5 train station, his hand on the letter in his pocket. He wonders if Zack and Private Strife are dead yet. For their sakes, and for his own sake, he hopes so.

Author's note: I hope that wasn't too episodic and disjointed.

On to Rocket Town, where Rufus takes centre stage...