BOOK
1
The Pillar
_____The
office of President Shinra was located on the top floor of the Shinra Building,
the headquarters. Four marble columns supported the ceiling, and there were
two wide staircases leading symmetrically down to the next floor, lined with
expensive purple carpets. His desk was a magnificent piece of furniture, spanning
almost the width of the room. The wall behind him was in fact a window, leading
out to the balcony high above Sector 4. From this room he could see the whole
of Midgar and most of the surrounding lands.
_____President Shinra sat behind the desk, accompanied
by Reeve. This confident young man had a short, brown goatee beard and a dark
blue suit, similar to the ones the Turks wore.
_____A large man entered the office, sporting
a fluffy black beard, a balding head and a green suit with red strips. He
strode across the room and confronted the President.
_____"How are the preparations going?"
Shinra asked.
_____"Ha ha ha!" bellowed Heideggar,
the man in the green suit. "Smoothly, very smoothly! I assigned the Turks
to this job. They should complete the mission as planned."
_____"President!!" Reeve interrupted.
"Are we really going to do this? Simply destroy a group so small?"
_____"What's the problem, Reeve?" Shinra
asked, lifting himself from his large padded chair and wandering round to
the front of the desk where the other men stood. "You want out?"
_____"...No." Reeve replied nervously.
"But as head of the Urban Development Department, I have been involved
in the building and running of Midgar. That's why..."
_____"Reeve, you should flush those personal
problems in the morning!" Heideggar sneered, then turned to face Preident
Shinra again. "Now if you'll excuse me, sir!"
_____He turned on his heal and strode off grinning
to himself. Reeve reached out to grab the man, but he was too far away and
he gave up.
_____"You're tired." Shinra said. "Why
don't you take a couple of days off and go somewhere."
_____Without complaints, Reeve left the office.
Shinra was left alone. He wandered back to the large windows and folded his
arms behind his back. This was almost too perfect to be true.
_____"We'll destroy Sector 7," he planned
to himself. "And report that AVALANCHE did it. Then we'll send in the
rescue operation care of Shinra Inc. Heh heh heh, this is perfect..."
_____Cloud
regained consciousness as a massive fist grabbed him by the leg and threw
him against the wall. Dazed, he opened his eyes and saw that he was in the
sewers beneath Sector 6. He was covered in green slime and garbage, and the
smell was terrible.
_____Then he realised what had just happened
and jumped to his feet. Tifa and Aeris were waiting in their battle stances,
confronting a huge sewer monster - Apps. It stood about eight feet tall, a
tiny bit too tall to fit in the sewers without bending over. Its skin was
green and it wore a ragged cloth around its waist. Broken chains were wrapped
around is wrists. Cloud supposed that Apps had broken them itself.
_____With a deafening roar, the monster pounded
Tifa into the knee-deep sludge. She screamed in pain as blood spurted from
her nose. The beast held her face in the liquid, attempting to drown her,
but Cloud bounded through the air and landed on its back. He plunged his Buster
Sword into its shoulder and it snarled, releasing Tifa from its grasp and
trying to grab Cloud instead.
_____"Aeris! Now!" Cloud cried, hanging
on to Apps' strands of hair whilst avoiding its fists at the same time. Aeris
nodded and lifted her staff above her head. A green materia orb flashed into
life, glowing brightly. A burst of white light exploded from the magical orb
and fire errupted in the air. By a strange force, the fire seemed to organize
itself into streams. The needles flowed freely around Aeris, twisting and
turning, before pointing themselves towards Apps and blasting forward at great
speed. The flame jets burned six large holes in its upper torso, wide enough
to fit your arm through. Apps roared in both pain and rage as steam drifted
up from the wounds. It fell to its knees, steadying itself with its great
muscular arms.
_____Cloud was ready. He lifted his sword above
his head and jumped into the air. A ray of light caught the blade and reflected
into Apps' eyes, blinding it temporarily. It grunted in shock, and Cloud fell
back down. He brought the weapon down hard on the beast's head and its skull
split in two. An almighty scream echoed throughout the murky tunnels of the
sewers as it collapsed and fell face-down into the sewage. The beast was dead.
_____Tifa sighed as she heaved herself out of
the sewers. She slid the manhole cover back into place and straightened her
back as she took in her surroundings. They were in a large open space with
ruined train carriages littering the place. Some were even piled on top of
each other, their windows shattered and their lights extinguished. This was
the Train Graveyard, a ghostly area of Sector 7.
_____"It's too late..." she sobbed.
"Marlene... Barret... the people of the slums..."
_____"Don't give up hope!" Aeris said
soothingly. "Never give up hope! It's not easy to destroy the pillar,
right?"
_____"...Yeah." Tifa said, wiping a
tear from her eye. "Yeah, you're right! We still have time!"
_____They carefully made their way through the
mass of wrecked trains, but as quickly as they could. Once or twice, Cloud
thought he heard whispers around him, but he ignored the eerie feeling and
carried on.
_____After
about ten minutes, they reached the station. Pausing briefly for a rest, they
heard distant gunfire. They looked at each other, all thinking the same thing,
then hurried on to the base of the pillar.
_____"We made it!" Tifa cried. "The
pillar's standing!"
_____The pillar was a massive concrete tower.
At the top was the plate, a large steel disc which served as the ground for
people living up on the top level. Alongside the pillar was a second tower,
much smaller and thinner. It reached about half way up the pillar where there
was a circular platform. Leading up to the platform was a narrow spiral staircase.
Machine guns errupted with bullets at numerous points on the tower.
_____There was a sudden outbreak of gunfire on
the platform and a figure at the top staggered backwards. It paused for a
few seconds, then tumbled over the railings and plummetted down to the ground
and landed next to Cloud and the others. A few of the sector's inhabitants
were waiting at the bottom of the pillar.
_____Cloud turned round and looked at the person
who had fallen. It was Wedge! He ran over to him and crouched down.
_____"Wedge!" he cried. "You all
right?"
_____"...Cloud... you remembered my name..."
he smiled, blood trickling from his mouth. "Barret's up... top... Help
him... Sorry I wasn't any help..."
_____His body shuddered and locked in position
as the life faded from Wedge's eyes. Cloud knelt silently for a moment in
mourning, then rose to his feet.
_____"I'm going up." he said to the
girls and they nodded.
_____"Aeris, do me a favour." Tifa
requested. "I have a bar called '7th Heaven' in this neighbourhood. There's
a little girl named Marlene there..."
_____Aeris didn't even need to hear the rest
as she said "Don't worry, I'll put her somewhere safe!"
_____"It's dangerous here!" Tifa shouted
to the people around them. "Everyone get out of Sector 7!!"
_____The people scattered, some of them heading
back to their homes to retrieve a few last belongings, some of them heading
straight to one of the neighbouring sectors. Cloud and Tifa headed for the
tower and ran as fast as they could up the flights of steps. After a few flights
they found Biggs. He was slumped against the railings, blood oozing from a
bullet wound in his chest. He lifted his head slowly.
_____"Go... help Barret..." he wheezed.
Cloud nodded and carried on. They ran up the stairs, their knees and feet
aching, but they didn't give up. Three quarters of the way up, Jessie was
laying on the steps, bleeding heavily.
_____"Cloud..." she coughed. "Because
of my actions... many people died... This is probably... my punishment..."
Tifa covered her mouth as Jessie vomitted blood, and dragged Cloud up the
steps.
_____They finally reached the top. From here
they could see the Train Graveyard, Wall Market, the church, and many other
landmarks. Barret was spinning around, firing countless rounds at a circling
helicopter.
_____"You came!" he cried in joy. "They've
been attacking in full force!"
_____The vehicle roared as is flew just above
their heads. The door opened on the side and Reno dropped from it, running
over to a large mechanism on the platform when he had landed. He hammered
rapidly at the control panel.
_____"You're too late!" he cried over
the noise of the rotors. "Once I push this button..."
_____As if in slow motion, his arm lowered and
his index finger extended. As it move down, it collided with a large red button
and it let out a beep.
_____"That's all, folks." Reno smiled.
"Mission accomplished. Now it's time to deal with you!"
_____In one fluid motion he whipped his mysterious
rod from his belt and swung it through the air. As he pressed a button on
the side with his thumb, it extended to double its length, just like Aeris'
weapon. He lunged forward and forced the rod into Barret's stomach. With a
crackle, sparks flew and Barret fell backwards. It was an electric rod.
_____"Damn!" Barret grunted. Reno grinned
at him as he hopped back into position. Tifa let out a menacing battle-cry
and jumped towards the Turk. Her fist was pulled back, then it snapped forward
as if an elastic band that had been holding it had broken. It smashed into
the side of Reno's head and he recoiled in pain.
_____"Hey!" he yelled. "You're
gonna pay for that!"
_____His rod twirled in a triangular pattern
and a semi-transparent pyramid appeared around Tifa. She screamed but was
not heard as she hammered on the sides of the pyramid. It didn't even move
when she kicked it with all her might.
_____"Barret, take care of Reno!" Cloud
ordered. "I'll get Tifa out of this thing!"
_____He drew his sword and sliced at the pyramid
as hard as he could and it shattered. Tifa fell to the ground in exhaustion.
She looked up and Cloud and smiled as he held out his hand. She grabbed it
and climbed to her feet.
_____Meanwhile, Barret had seized Reno by the
neck and was beating him over the head with his gun-arm. The man's face was
bruised and bloody and he tried to push Barret away, but the big man continued
to hit him.
_____"Urrghh!" Barret roared. "This
is for all the hell Shinra has caused me!!"
_____"Barret, leave him alone." Tifa
said. Strangely, he did as he was told. Instead of giving in, Reno ran for
the edge of the platform and threw himself over the railings.
_____"Quick!
Let's disarm this thing!" Tifa cried as she ran over to the control panel.
Gradually, the sound of a helicopter grew louder and louder until it rose
from beneath the platform. Standing in the open door way was another member
of the Turks. His name was Tseng. He also wore the usual blue suit, but was
far smarter than Reno. His long hair was pulled back into a ponytail.
_____"Ha ha ha!" he laughed. "Only
a Shinra Executive can set up or disarm the Emergency Plate Release System!"
_____"Shut yer hole!" Barret yelled
and aimed his weapon at Tseng.
_____"I wouldn't try that," he replied.
"You might hurt our special guest..."
_____He lifted a handful of brown hair. Just
below his hand was Aeris, kneeling down in the helicopter.
_____"Aeris!" Tifa cried.
_____"Oh, you know each other?" Tseng
asked. "How nice that you were able to see each other one last time.
You should thank me."
_____"What are you gonna do with her?"
Cloud asked through gritted teeth.
_____"I haven't decided." Tseng replied.
"Our orders were to catch the last remaining Ancient. It's taken us a
long time, but now I can finally report this to the President."
_____"Tifa, don't worry!" Aeris cried.
"She's all right!"
_____Angered, Tseng brought his hand down hard
across Aeris' face. She fell back, her cheek stinging from the blow. Tseng
turned back to the three people standing on the platform.
_____"Ha ha ha, it should be starting right
about now." he said. "Think you can escape in time?"
_____The helicopter began to fly higher towards
the plate when a small explosion sent a chunk of flaming concrete falling
down towards it. It veered out of the way and flew off and the piece of debris
landed on a house below, smashing it to pieces and destroying everything inside.
_____Barret climbed up on to the platform's railings
and grabbed a long wire which was hanging nearby.
_____"Yo, we can use this wire to get out!"
he cried. Tifa ran over and sat in his lap, also holding on to the wire. Cloud
climbed on to his shoulders and took a firm grip of the wire. Barret pushed
off with his feet and they swung down at a magnificent speed towards Sector
6. Behind them a shockwave ruptured the foundations of the pillar and a giant
crack spread right to the top. It slowly split into pieces and collapsed,
sending the plate above crashing to the ground. Everything in Sector 7 was
destroyed that day.
_____At the top of the Shinra Building, the President
watched through his thick windows. A dramatic opera classic was playing on
the office stereo. As the lights in the ruined sector slowly faded one by
one, and the smoke from the explosions gradually began to fade, a faint smile
appeared in the corner of his mouth.