Author's Note: Hello everyone, as I said before, this chapter is a tad bit shorter than normal, but is hopefully an enjoyable read nonetheless.
From this point I'm going to be hitting a bit of a tough series of narrative choices, as the story could go in a wide array of directions. Because of that my updates may be a bit slower, but I do encourage you all to continue looking forward to more updates.
Thank you all for the continued support!
The sound of boots against metal filled the underground tunnels of Shinra's Site 9 Storage Facility in Gongaga. During the days of the Wutai War it served as the clandestine home to the Advanced Weaponry Department's discarded prototypes and failed projects. Though officially referred to as Site 9, it came to be more commonly known as 'Scarlet's Broomcloset' among the facility's custodians.
Following Shinra's dissolution, Rufus continued to utilize it as a dumping ground for old and outdated tech. To those that managed Site 9, it was nothing more than a tomb for forgotten technology to collect dust until the weight of time brought rust to their steel frames.
However it wasn't the battalion's worth of war machinery or the myriad of weapons that were at risk of being tampered with as the alarms screeched and the red lights lining the tunnels flashed. Sector 2006 housed only a single specimen, the being known as Subject R, an organic sample placed in cold storage two years earlier. It arrived with little fanfare, and hadn't been so much as an afterthought for the attending staff beyond being yet another entry among tens of thousands of subjects whenever the quarterly inventory reports came around.
"Seal off the area! Lock down the intruder!" The order came through the earpiece of one of Shinra's private security troops as they knelt down and assessed the bloodied corpse of one of their squadmates. It appeared they went down with two cuts across the chest in an 'X' shape.
"That'll be a problem, sir," the troop said as they stood and turned their gaze down the long tunnel. Four twelve-inch thick security doors had already been sealed shut, and all four of them had been sliced open as if they were made of no more than mere tinfoil. "If you want to seal off the target, we're going to need thicker doors."
"God damn it!" the voice over the earpiece growled. "Just stand by and hold down the area! An operative is coming your way now!"
"Did you say an operative?" The troop turned back toward the line of over a dozen bodies strewn about the grated floor.
"They're a Turk."
"Uh-huh," they replied. "I think we're still going to need more than one."
"Well tough, you're just going to have to deal with what you've got." This time the voice came from a woman down the hall. The remainder of the squad turned to meet the voice and found a young woman with dark red hair holding a large silver and red shuriken firmly in her grasp.
"Are you the Turk?" the troop asked, looking over the woman's blue jacket and red pants. If she was indeed a Turk, she certainly wasn't dressed like one.
"Call me Cissnei," she replied. "Have any of you laid eyes on the intruder yet?"
"Considering that we're all still standing here talking to you, no." the troop gestured toward the bodies scattered about.
"Point taken," Cissnei replied. "Stay at the rear and provide covering fire. I'll lead the way."
"Be my guest," the troop said as the auburn haired Turk took point.
Cissnei led the squad through the winding tunnel, her dark eyes shooting up and down the path that lay ahead of her. Whoever it was that infiltrated the facility was clearly not someone to be taken lightly. Twenty-two troops, six sweeper mechs, and a guard scorpion had already been taken down by the time she'd arrived on site. With that in mind, she wasn't going to allow herself to be caught off guard.
"They've reached Subject R's containment cell!" the voice buzzed over the earpiece.
"Of course they have," Cissnei murmured to herself as she and the squad sprinted for the target's location. The one silver-lining to all this was that Subject R was in cryo-freeze, and the dethawing process would take at minimum five minutes before the intruder would be able to move them without causing significant harm to the sample. Five minutes was more than enough time to reach them. The only uncertainty was what would they do once they found the target?
Cissnei spotted the slashed-down door leading to Subject R's cell and hurried inside with the squad of Shinra private security troops behind her. The room itself was nothing remarkable. Square and empty, each of the storage cells were modular in nature, able to be adjusted and utilized for whatever needs or purposes were required to be fulfilled. However instead of storing lines of mechs or containers of experimental weaponry, this cell housed a metal coffin-like structure on the far wall from the entrance. Several computer modules and haphazard lines cables and tubing ran along the floor around the coffin, connecting through ports of various shapes and sizes. Pressure valves hissed as liquid nitrogen was pumped into the coffin, keeping the unseen sample within frozen solid.
"I hear only seven heartbeats," the intruder spoke with a haunting voice that rang throughout the cell. His inflections were as smooth as glass, betraying the overwhelming amount of confidence radiating from him. "Did they really think that'd be enough to stop me? I don't know if I should laugh at the hilarity or seethe at the arrogance."
From where Cissnei stood, she could only see the man's back, but her highly trained eyes were well-honed enough to glean more than just a basic description by looking at him. They were quite tall, and made to look even taller by the long white trenchcoat that ran all the way down to the cuffs of their heavy boots. Their posture, like their voice, oozed with authority and power. Whether or not they were truly as strong as they boasted, she couldn't say, but as she would've put it in her own words, it was clear the intruder had 'bought into their own hype'.
That confidence would be Cissnei's opening. When faced with someone who is certain that they're going to win, the most reliable way to seize victory, even if outmatched, is to exploit their arrogance and deal the finishing blow before the enemy can deal their first.
That was what Tseng taught her when she first joined the Turks, and it was advice that'd saved her life more than once.
The intruder's guard was down, and now was no better time than ever to strike. With her silver and red shuriken in hand, she dashed toward the white coated intruder and leapt through the air as she closed in for a precision strike to the C7 vertebrae directly at the base of the neck.
With hands of wind and the strength of a crashing wave, the intruder spun on their heels to meet Cissnei's attack head-on with his own weapons. Two katanas clashed against Cissnei's shuriken with an 'X' shaped block. As the sparks flew through the air on impact she was met by ocean blue eyes that burned with the ferocity of a predator, shrouded by a mane of white hair.
Both Cissnei's hair and the intruder's coat billowed from the force of their clash. In spite of all the power she put into her attack, it was like she'd hit a solid, unshakable wall. With gritted teeth, the Turk continued to press her attack, but her opponent didn't buckle, didn't falter, didn't even flinch. Instead, they just smiled.
Cissnei felt her heart turn to ice in her chest as she pushed herself back to make some distance from her opponent. With her now out of the line of fire, the troops let loose a burst from their assault rifles. It proved not only to be a futile effort, but a fatal one on their part.
With a single brandish of his blades, the intruder deflected the projectiles back, splattering the wall behind the troops with bullet holes and splashes of crimson as the hunks of lead tore through their flesh. Cissnei watched with shock and awe as she saw all six of them crumble to the ground before forcing herself to turn her attention back to the intruder.
"Hold on a sec," she murmured, assuming a defensive stance as the intruder slowly strode toward the metal coffin. "I recognize you!" Now that she had a good look at him, there was no denying it. "You were on that broadcast two years ago! You're…"
"Weiss, The Immaculate," he replied before delivering a firm slash to the tubing connected to the coffin. The severed hose let out a loud hiss. Steam poured from it as the liquid nitrogen inside was met by the ambient temperature of the room, filling the cell with a cold fog. The monitor connected to the coffin flashed a warning stating that the specimen was rapidly beginning to thaw.
Cissnei tightened the grip on her shuriken and took a step back as the fog clouded her vision, turning Weiss into nothing more than a hazy silhouette. The Turk took in a deep breath to compose herself and zeroed in on the sound of Weiss' footsteps along the metal flooring.
As his form vanished within the fog, she still heard him slowly pacing back and forth. Even from behind the veil she felt his fierce gaze upon her. A bead of sweat trickled down her cheek, chilling at the touch of the cold air permeating the cell.
Then she heard it, the sound of boots dashing across metal. A shadow came into form before her as the steps grew louder. He was fast, far faster than she could ever hope to be. Raising her weapon, she prepared to deflect the incoming blow.
XXXXX
The battle for Nibelheim raged on. The rattling of chainguns ripped through the skies between the warring aircraft. On the ground the close proximity had devolved the fighting from typical shoot-and-cover tactics into what could only be described as a visceral brawl of running and gunning.
Cloud clashed weapons with the imposing lancer, their Fusion Sword getting caught between the prongs of his opponent's trident-like spear. The lancer twisted the spear, utilizing the leverage they gained to try to yank the weapon out of Cloud's grasp, but a swift twist of the hilt broke off the sword into two separate blades that easily slipped from the spear's hold.
Strife came at the lancer with an upward slash, forcing them to disengage as the edges of the two blades barely grazed the lancer's chin.
Cloud didn't allow his enemy the time to regroup. Dashing forward, he sought to exploit the opening. With inhuman reflexes, the lancer dodged and weaved between Cloud's strikes.
The SOLDIER watched the lancer's movements with a sharp eye. He knew for certain that he'd seen this same fighting style used before, but the memory of where was so distant that he couldn't place it amidst the heat of battle.
With a mighty blow, Cloud brought the edges of both swords into the side of the lancer. The force of the strike shattered the silver and blue armor at the point of impact and sent the them flying into the side of an abandoned building, crashing through a boarded-up window.
Cloud's shoulders rose and fell with each breath he took, slowing his breath as he watched the figure shift from behind the window. A talon-like hand reached out from inside and grabbed hold of the window frame as the lancer re-emerged from the building.
The armor around its abdomen had been completely destroyed, revealing a sickly pale patch of skin lined with thick black veins. It's helmet broke apart at the jaw, freeing the fanged maw beneath it. Brandishing its spear, the creature let loose a deafening howl as a stubby black wing emerged out of its left shoulder, twisting and spasming into place as the new appendage tore through its flesh with a visceral snap and tear.
Cloud grew deaf to the ensuing chaos surrounding him, only able to perceive the horrid beast standing before him. He felt a chilling bite along the edges of his cheeks, like the kiss of a bitter winter.
His vision flashed, and he was no longer in Nibelheim. Beneath his boots he felt the distinct crumbling of powder snow. Feeling something tight around his neck, he stabbed one of his swords into the ground and used his free hand to grab at it, pulling off a green scarf, the same sort of green scarf he hadn't recalled wearing in many years. Shaking his head, he threw it to the white ground that glistened beneath the cloud covered sunlight.
The SOLDIER grabbed at his forehead, trying to get a grip on what was happening. With blurred vision, he looked ahead to see the creature hovering a meter above the ground before him, its stubby wing flapping in the air while the tip of its lance cut along the surface of the snow.
"Stand back, Cloud!" He felt a firm hand on his shoulder, holding him in place as the unseen voice strode toward the creature before coming into Cloud's view. "I'll handle this one." The figure glanced back at Cloud with a confident smile that Strife could recognize anywhere.
"Zack?" Without being given a response, Cloud watched as Zack approached the creature, bringing to arms their standard issue SOLDIER saber.
Cloud's vision flashed again, and the sounds of war returned. The snow was gone, as was Zack. Yet the creature still remained, glaring at him with a malevolent grin painted across its fanged lips.
Shaking his head, Cloud retrieved his second sword from the ground and held up both blades in an aggressive stance. Slowing his breath he let out a soft exhale, forcefully removing the confounding thoughts and visions from his mind.
Once he'd found his composure, he leapt into the air and brought down his blades upon the creature.
XXXXX
Azul crashed his massive bestial body into the cavern wall, missing Vincent as he dashed out of harm's way. From afar, Barret looked up to see the crystals dangling from the ceiling tremble from the impact.
Raising his gun arm, he took aim at the crystals above Azul and opened fire. The bullets fractured and tore through the dense minerals, breaking them off from the ceiling and sending them plummeting toward Azul's behemoth-like form.
The Tsviet brought his ferocious gaze upwards and growled. Their long horns emitted a subtle blue glow as they opened their huge maw. Once the glow of their horns reached its precipice, a blue beam of pure mako energy erupted from their mouth, eviscerating the crystals before they could touch the ground.
"Never told me he could do that!" Barret shouted as Vincent leapt over to his side.
"Must be a new trick."
Azul moved in for another charge, leaving behind a scorching trail of blue mako fire in his wake. Vincent and Barret emptied their weapons into the rampaging beast, but their bullets merely bounced off of his armored hide.
"Ah shit…"
Though Vincent was again able to avoid the charge, Barret took the brunt of it. Azul's horns slammed into the large man, smashing him into the cave wall, shattering almost a dozen crystals on impact.
With blood dripping from his brow and the taste of iron in his mouth, Barret managed to grab hold of one of Azul's horns as the monster tried to pull away.
"Unhand me you filthy human!" Azul roared, taken aback by Barret's immense display of strength as he dug his paws into the ground, trying to break free of Wallace's grip.
"You ain't going anywhere!" Barret put his gun up directly to Azul's lion-like head. "Not till I say so!" The barrel burned bright red as the cannon charged with a surge of power. The Tsviet bucked and thrashed about, but even after managing to dislodge Barret from the cavern wall, he still couldn't loose the grasp they had on him.
Barret and Azul saw nothing but pure white as Wallace unleashed the mighty blast directly into Azul's head. The concussive force sent Barrett flying through the air before landing hard on the ground. Shortly after that, a fractured horn came down as well, the tip impairing itself into the stony floor just a meter away from where Barret landed.
"So there's more to you than I gave credit for." The smoke from the blast cleared, unveiling Azul's battle-scarred visage. His right horn was broken at the base, dripping with streaks of thick crimson. Similarly, his right eye appeared to be missing entirely, with nothing more than a patch of scorched and bloodied flesh in its place. In spite of their injuries, their feral posture made it clear they weren't anywhere near finished yet.
"Tough son-of-a-bitch."
Vincent took advantage of the opportunity by sending out a barrage of fire magic at Azul's newly created blind spot. The blast burned into the Tsviet's weak spot, sending fledgling flames dancing across his face.
With another roar, Azul unleashed a barrage of brutality. His immense strength was only rivaled by his speed as he shot and darted across the cavern, goring and trampling over his two adversaries with reckless abandon.
Try as they did to keep up, neither Barret nor Vincent could match Azul as he slashed, clawed, ripped, slammed, and bit down on them.
Vincent rolled across the hard ground, struggling to his feet just in time to see Azul's massive maw spread wide and ready to clamp down on him with their mighty jaws.
Then just as the former Turk braced to be crushed by Azul's ferocious fangs, Barret stepped between them with a deftness and speed Vincent didn't even know the man was capable of.
The jaws came down, and Barret met them with the barrel of his gun. A spray of bullets tore through the inside of Azul's mouth, sending him reeling in a howl of pain.
"I got you covered, Vincent!" Barret shouted. "Now just do your thing!"
Vincent gave the man a small nod, then turned his attention back to Azul as they thrashed about with Barret further harassing them with even more gunfire. Though he knew exactly what had to be done to finish this fight quickly, Vincent was nonetheless hesitant to see it through.
Averting his gaze for a moment and laying his crimson eyes upon the woman encased in crystal, he realized he didn't have the luxury of choice given the situation.
Vincent's body twisted and contorted. His features twisted and his body grew in size. With ferocious claws and a bestial visage, Vincent assumed the form of the notorious Galian Beast, and leapt for Azul.
"So my eyes didn't deceive me earlier?" Azul cackled, smacking Barret away with his huge tail. "You have managed to retain the powers of Chaos."
Vincent replied with only a roar of fury as his monstrous form came crashing down with a ball of fire held in his claws.
Azul answered Vincent with the glow of his remaining horn and a blast of mako. The attack came too quickly for Vincent to evade, and he was forced to take the full force of it as the explosion sent him soaring into the air in a smoking heap before gravity finally took hold and brought him plummeting back. The Galian Beast crashed into the stone and let out a grunt as they bounced from the impact.
"However, it appears you hold but a fraction of the power you once did."
"Vincent!" Barret ran to his companion's side as they shifted back to their original form.
"I must say, I am a little disappointed," Azul snickered as he approached the two with a predatory cadence in his step. "I was hoping to leave this battle with at least two new scars."
"Scars, huh?" Barret said. After assessing that Vincent was still breathing, he brought a wrathful glare to his enemy. "So that's what you want?" Reaching down with his left hand, Barret grabbed the Cerberus from Vincent's unconscious body and stood tall. Turning to face the Tsviet, he aimed both his gun arm and Vincent's Cerberus pistol at the massive beast. "Then I'll give you some god damn scars!"
Barret took off toward Azul in a sprint, unleashing both weapons into the monstrous creature as they too charged for the kill.
Azul felt the bullets grazing against his hide, doing little to slow him down. Blue fire burned at his feet as he pounced, lining up Barret directly in the center of his path of destruction. With voracious jaws and unyielding rage, Azul bit down on Barret, grabbing him by the waist.
Wallace groaned in pain as the teeth dug into his wounds from their previous encounter. Azul tasted the blood seeping onto his tongue, lavishing in the coppery flavor.
"Got you right where I want ya, you big blue bastard!"
Pressing both guns against the weak spot where Azul's right eye used to be, he emptied everything he had into them. The bullets shredded and ravaged through the opening in the Tsviet's armored hide, tearing through them as blood gushed from the open wound.
In a wild frenzy of agony, Azul thrashed his head back and forth before letting go of Barret, sending them tumbling through the air, colliding square against the largest crystal in the room, fracturing it down the middle.
Barret yelped as he bounced off the crystal and slammed into the floor, blood pooling around him from the wounds on his abdomen.
Azul continued to howl and scream, allowing for the re-emerging creature to go unnoticed by them. Rising back to their feet, the Galian Beast let out another roar after having found its second wind.
By the time Azul realized that Vincent had returned to the fight, it was far too late. Channeling a massive fireball in their claws, the beast took off in a dash and slammed it directly into the open wound on Azul's head, digging their arm deep into the gaping heap of scarred flesh before detonating the fireball inside the Tsviet's skull.
The eruption of fire saw smoke and flames pouring out of Azul's mouth, nostrils, and remaining eye socket as they let out one final howl before falling over in a smoldering heap.
With their enemy defeated, Vincent reverted back to his human form and crumbled to his knees for a moment before finding the strength to rise again and go to check on Barret.
"Are you alright?"
"Been better," he coughed. "Been a hell of a lot worse." Wallace wiped the blood from his mouth. "But Vince, man, I think we've got a problem." Raising a thick finger, Barret pointed toward the large crystal where Lucrecia slumbered, bringing Vincent's attention to a thick crack spider-webbing its way across the structure of the crystal.
"No…"
XXXXX
With a whip of their blades, Weiss flicked off all the blood before moving toward the metal coffin. Across the room, Cissnei laid sprawled out along the floor with a growing pool of crimson encircling her.
"There was a time where I had a modicum of respect for Turks," Weiss said, sheathing his katanas. "No mako infusions, no genetic alterations. You were just simply the best of the best that humanity had to offer. Now though, Mother has shown me where it is your kind truly stand in the hierarchy of the cosmos."
Weiss reached up to the lid of the metal coffin and ripped it open, unveiling what rested inside. The interior had already thawed, leaving only trace inklings of frost along the skin of the crimson haired woman inside. Her features were beyond beautiful, kept pristine by the cryo-freezing. Though she may have appeared exactly as she did in life, she was nonetheless an empty husk whose eyes had been shut forever.
"Don't worry, Rosso, my dear," Weiss hoisted the corpse up and flung her limp body over his shoulder as he headed for the exit. "Mother will make you better, and we'll be a family once again."
XXXXX
The fractures along the crystal continued to spread, causing chunks of it to crumble before Vincent and Barret's very eyes.
"Shit, man! What do we do?"
"The only thing we can do," Vincent replied, looking up to Lucrecia as the cracks thickened. "We have to be ready for when she wakes up."
"What's going to happen when she wakes up?"
"I don't know." Barret couldn't help but feel a chill run down his spine upon hearing a rare show of uncertainty in Vincent's voice.
Vincent stepped up to the crystal and held his arms out as it continued to crumble around him. Once the integrity fully gave way, all that remained of the crystal shattered into thousands of minuscule pieces, raining upon Vincent and Barret like a downpour of glass.
"I've got you," Vincent whispered as Lucrecia fell into his arms, her body going limp in his grasp. The former Turk felt her begin to shift as she wearily awakened from her deep slumber. Easing her onto her feet, Vincent slowly let Lucrecia down as her deep brown eyes fluttered open, meeting with his bright crimson.
"Vincent?" She murmured. "Vincent what are you…"
"It's okay, Lucrecia," he said, with an arm wrapped around the small of her back to keep her steady. "There's nothing to worry about. I'm here."
Dr. Crescent stiffened in Vincent's grasp, her eyes going wide as she pushed him away, stumbling back as her head darted left and right, frantically taking in her surroundings.
"No!" She shouted. "I can't be… I can't be awa—" The crystalline cavern flickered in and out of existence before her eyes. A sharp, jagged pain cut deep into her lower abdomen as visions of a land plagued with death and desolation burned in her eyes. Shrill wails of tormented souls stabbed at her eardrums, sending her crumbling to her knees as she screamed in horror.
"Lucrecia!" Vincent ran up and knelt down next to her. "Lucrecia, it's okay!"
"Is she going to be alright?!" Barret exclaimed, trying to figure out what exactly he should do with himself. "Do we need to take her to a doctor or something?"
"Make it stop!" Lucrecia's banshee shrieks shook the cavern as she balled up on the ground. She could feel it. Something awful, terrible, and wicked stirred within the planet, beckoning her with a whisper that trembled her very soul. It was a voice she'd never heard before, but had known all her life. Unfamiliar, yet intimate. A thousand miles away, but right there next to her ear.
"Return to me, Mother," it said.
Only the cries of the planet could drown out the sound of Lucrecia's screams.