The body of Sephiroth, still attached to the Deva System, stirred. He was alive once more. His ghost, his ideal form, his mind, and his body had merged to form one individual again. Sephiroth was back.
* * *
A chocobo carriage rolled through the Alazern Desert on its way back to Romanda City, where Mustadio would transport Cloud's party back home. "Been nice knowing you guys," Orlandu said, knowing they would soon part.
"Yeah, you too," Rufus replied.
"Too many damn Cids," Cid complained. "One of you Cids has to go $%*($%."
Olan, who was holding the Chocobo's reins, leaned back. "Er... is our world going to disappear? Now that Sephiroth has found his true self?"
"Not as long as the Deva System stays hooked up to those Tactics Ogre folks, I shouldn't imagine so," Vincent said.
"Oh." Olan said, visibly relieved. "That's good."
Cait Sith was leaning out the carriage window and making faces at the occasional passerby. One such passerby was sprinting towards the carriage on a Chocobo of his own. "Er... I think we have a problem here," C.S. said.
"Return the Zodiac Stones at once!" Ramza shouted. Behind him, Alma and Mayor Domino came into view on their own Chocobos. "You don't understand their power!"
"And you do?" Rufus shot back.
Delita poked his head out of the carriage window and looked at Ramza, who was now riding parallel to the carriage. "Ramza! Algus was the real killer, not me! We have the DNA tests to prove it!"
"DNA tests?" Ramza said. "What are you talking about?"
"Er... are you sure about that?" Domino asked Delita. Domino, of course, was fully aware what a DNA test was.
Cid walked up behind Delita, holding his spear ready to shove out the window. "Get out of the way," he said to Delita. "I'm going to knock him off his Chocobo."
Without warning, Ramza drew his sword and swiped at Delita. Delita ducked just in time to avoid being slashed in the head. As Cid prepared to strike, Alma cast Mbarrier on Ramza. Cid shoved his spear out the window at Ramza's chest height, but with the added speed from Alma's Mbarrier, Ramza was able to duck it. "@$#($%!" Cid swore. He tried a sweeping motion to push the crouching Ramza back off his chocobo, but Ramza parried the attack, knocking Cid's spear out of his hands and sending it spinning it through the carriage window, where it embedded itself in the wall just over Barret's head.
Three more Chocobos approached in the distance. "@$%($&%!" Cid said. "How many of them are there?"
Domino took a shot at the carriage with his Mako Gun. The brightly-colored explosion chipped off one of the corners of the carriage's roofs.
The three figures in the distance got closer. "Hey!" Orlandu said, looking back at them. "That's Rafa and Malak!"
"Oh no, this is all we need," Cait Sith said. "They're going to kill us on accident."
Orlandu stared at the third Chocobo rider until he recognized him. "And Professon Daravon!"
Daravon, Rafa, and Malak rode up behind Ramza, Alma, and Domino. Oh, please, don't do anything... Cloud prayed. "Rich!" Daravon shouted, raising his Gunge Lance.
The sky went dark and bats streaked across the sky. A black-robed lich descended from the sky, clutching a sickle. Rather than attack, however, it landed softly in the desert sand. "Hi, I'm Rich the lich," it introduced itself. Rich faced Ramza and slashed in the air with his scythe. A spiral of yellow energy uncoiled itself from the scythe's tip and slashed through Ramza's group. Their chocobos faltered for a moment.
"Giddyup! Faster!" Olan shouted, urging their Chocobo on. The carriage began to slowly pull ahead of Ramza, Alma, and Domino.
"We're going faster," Cloud observed.
Delita waved mockingly at Ramza as the blue-armored warrior disappeared into the distance.
"I wouldn't celebrate too soon!" Domino called to the carriage. "We planted a bomb in your carriage before you even left. If the carriage slows below 30 mph, it's going to detonate."
"@$%*&$%*$!" Cid swore.
"Run! Run! Giddyup!" Olan cried, waving the Chocobo's reins.
Ramza slowed his Chocobo to a halt. "You're sure that explosion won't damage the Zodiac Stones?" he asked Domino.
"Look, sacred magic artifacts don't blow up that easily," Domino explained. "And, besides, you said you wanted to get rid of them anyway."
The carriage was in state of total chaos. "What are we gonna do? What are we gonna do?" Rufus was yelling.
"I know! We gotta believe!" The response came from all corners of the carriage.
Vincent shook his head. "I'm not even gonna mark that one down."
"What do we do?" Delita asked calmly.
"For now, we just gotta keep running," Olan said. "As long as we keep going 30 miles per hour, we're fine."
"Yeah, but what happens if the Chocobo gets tired?" Rufus countered. "Or when we get to Romanda City? We can't go this fast through the city."
"Why don't we all just bail out?" Cait Sith suggested.
Delita looked out the window. They had left the desert and were now passing across a dry prairie. "You want to jump out onto on the ground this fast? Besides, if no one's on board to hold the reins, the Chocobo'll probably just stop and blow us all to kingdom come."
"Point taken," Cait Sith said.
"I know a lot about bombs," Barret said. "You want me to go under the carriage an' see I can disarm it?"
Rufus and Cloud looked at each other. "If you think you can," Cloud said. "Don't get too risky. It's not an emergency yet."
Barret walked out to the front of the carriage. Olan was still urging the Chocobo on. The Chocobo, although it could not understand the bomb situation, sensed the panic on the carriage and was starting to panic itself. It was zigzagging back and forth as it ran.
Barret gripped the rail around the carriage tightly and swung his legs over it. He slid his legs underneath the carriage, then slowly walked his hands down the rail posts until he was under the carriage.
Barret craned his neck to get a glimpse of the bomb. It was a squarish black box attached by some wires to the rear axle of the carriage. Should the axle spin too slowly..... kaboom.
The carriage wobbled as the Chocobo changed directions. Then the whole vehicle shook, and water splashed across all of Barret's body. The Chocobo was running through a small stream. Barret pulled himself back up to where Olan was sitting. "No way I can work wi' that damn bird running 'round like that," he muttered.
He walked back inside the carriage, dripping wet. "No good," he reported, shaking his head.
Orlandu was watching the terrain. "I think we're getting close to Romanda City," he said. "I sort of recognize this forest."
Cloud suddenly remembered the PHS phone he had given Mustadio. He unhooked his own PHS phone from his belt and dialed Mustadio. The phone rang a few times, then Mustadio answered. "Mustadio?" Cloud said.
"Er... I'm here," Mustadio said.
"This is Cloud. We got the Zodiac Stones, and we're heading back to Romanda City."
"Great!" Mustadio replied. He was catching on as to how to use a phone quickly.
"We do have one slight problem," Cloud continued.
"@*&#%$*^&!" Cid swore. "He's doing it again! Slight, my ass."
"Ramza's set a bomb on our Chocobo carriage," Cloud told Mustadio. "But it won't go off until we slow below 30 mph. We're okay right now, but we're coming up on the city. We've got to do something quick."
"And you want me to tell you what to do?" Mustadio guessed.
"That would be helpful."
Mustadio considered the situation. "Hmmm... you could jump into the transporter directly from the carriage. That way you wouldn't have to stop."
"That's it!" Cloud said, then reconsidered. "But wait... what's gonna happen to the carriage? And what about Orlandu and Olan and Delita?"
"I can transport them back to our world later," Mustadio said. "Then we can just let the carriage blow up somewhere safe. Like the Byblos's cave. That sounds good. I'll set the transporter up in the Byblos's cave, you jump in, and then we let the carriage blow up."
Cait Sith had been listening to the conversation. He suddenly leaped onto Cloud's shoulders and snatched the phone away from him. "Hello? This is Cait Sith. What's gonna happen to the Chocobo? You can't just blow it up; I'll sue your pants off if you do."
Mustadio considered this complaint. "Okay, here's what you do. Release the Chocobo just before you get to the cave. I bet you can coast down into the cave without the bomb going off."
"Okay," Cait Sith handed the phone back to Cloud.
"Are we all set then?" Mustadio asked.
"Yeah, I- wait a minute! How are we gonna get to Byblos's cave? It's in the middle of the city! We'll never make it there going 30 miles per hour."
"I hope you come up with something quick," Rufus said. "I can see the city gate."
"We're not going be able to make it through the city like this," Olan called back. "The Chocobo's panicking. We'll crash for sure."
"Hey!" Cid shouted. "You guys ever played Blast Corps?"
"What does that have to do with anything?" Vincent asked.
"#$(*$%, are you stupid? We'll do it just like in the game! Get that Mustadio kid to blow up all the buildings on the way to the cave!"
"Mustadio, Cid says we should blow up all the buildings between us and the cave," Cloud said.
"Blow up all the buildings?" Mustadio repeated incredulously. "Are you insane?"
"Look, what other damn choice do we have?" Cid pleaded. "You gotta take some risks occasionally!"
"I'm not insane," Cloud said. "Mustadio, go for it." He hung up the phone. "Let's hope he comes through."
"He'd better," Rufus muttered. The carriage started rolling up a hill. At the top of the hill was a vast sandstone wall. In the middle of the wall was a wide, marble-lined archway, and beyond that -- Romanda City.
"Hold onto your drawers and don't piss in 'em!" Cid shouted as the carriage sped towards the city.
* * *
Mustadio lit another barrel of gunpowder and tossed it into the open doorway of a house. Next to him, Agrias did the same and threw it through the house's window. They both ran away from the house and ducked behind a convient broken chimney that lay in the huge trail of rubble behind them. The house exploded in a rather satisfying shower of dust and bricks. A few seconds later, Meliadoul, Beowulf, and Reis demolished a nearby tavern in similar fashion.
Mustadio glanced back. Between them and the east gate of Romanda City was a wedge of nothing but broken boards, bricks, and the occasional crushed piece of furniture. Mustadio wiped the sweat of his face and picked up another barrel. "We're almost there," he panted. Mustadio lit the barrel and rolled it under the porch of the shop ahead of them.
Some city guardsmen raced up towards Mustadio. "Hey!" one of them shouted. "What the hell are you doing?"
Beowulf put down the barrel of gunpowder he was carrying, drew his sword, and swung in the air. A puff of smoke arose around the lead guard and he quickly metamorphosed into a chicken, which ran away squawking. The other guards stared at their former leader, then in terror at Beowulf. They all arrived at the conclusion that discretion was the better part of valor and left to go have some donuts.
Agrias chucked a barrel of gunpowder up on the shop roof, then she and Mustadio ran out of the blast range again. "Oh no!" Agrias exclaimed. "There's the carriage!"
Mustadio looked towards the gate. A Chocobo carriage was bouncing across the rubble towards them at breakneck speeds. Mustadio managed to remain relatively calm and thought quickly. "Quick, you've got to blow up those two houses and the church! That should give them enough space. I gotta go start the transporter!"
Mustadio ran off, leaving Agrias and Meliadoul working in one team and Beowulf and Reis in the other. They lit and tossed barrels at an even more feverish pace than before. The houses both blew up, but the carriage was nearing rapidly. "We're not going to make it!" Meliadoul said.
"@(*$%($!" Cid shouted from the carriage. "Get out of the way!"
The carriage was now just short of where Mustadio and Agrias had been standing just a few moments ago. Desperately, Beowulf lit another barrel and ran towards the church, the last obstacle between the carriage and the Byblos's cave. Two church soldiers saw him and ran out of the church. "Get away from here!" one of them shouted at Beowulf. "This is a holy place!"
"We're going to crash!" Rufus shouted. "I can't look!" He put his hands over his eyes and crouched down, waiting for the impact.
A humanoid robot dropped out of the sky and landed on the left side of the church. The pilot peered down at the pair of soldiers. "A holy place, eh? DIE!" The Gear fired a huge beam at the church. Beowulf instinctively dived out of the way and rolled behind the stock of barrels for cover. The church collapsed as the beam tore through it. The bell tower disintegrated especially impressively, and the bell fell on one of the church soldiers, crushing him. The other soldier was beaned by a falling piece of wood and was killed.
"Thanks, Mr. Robot Guy!" Cait Sith shouted at the Gear as it flew off.
"Gee! Gee!" Olan shouted, waving the Chocobo's reins. The carriage swerved in just time to avoid the bell and accompanying guard. The Chocobo galloped across the former church and into the park where the Byblos's cave lay.
Orlandu ran up front and stood next to his adopted son. He pointed at a trench on the far side of the park. "The cave's in there!" he said.
The Chocobo charged quickly across the park and dived into the ravine. The ravine was a steep, rocky, ditch running diagonally across one corner of the park. There was little bottom to the ravine, just a sharp slope back up the other side.
Mustadio was standing at the mouth of a cave carved in the side of the ravine. "Release the Chocobo!" he bellowed, cupping his hands over his mouth. Orlandu reached down his sword and swiped off the ropes holding the Chocobo. The frightened bird stumbled out of the ravine at a tangent, warking loudly.
The carriage rolled down the side of the ravine, carried by momentum, and continued into the Byblos's cave. The transporter machine was set up in the first room, off to one side of the room. "Bail out! NOW!" Cloud shouted. He threw himself out of the window. As he neared the transporter, a bolt of blue lightning flared between Cloud and the rod at the top of the device. Cloud wavered briefly, then vanished.
The others had already jumped off the carriage -- some out the window, others from the front or back -- and fell towards the transporter in one mass. The machine sent a bolt of lightning to each one and teleported them all away.
The empty Chocobo carriage rolled across the room, still going fast -- that is, until it collided with the wall. The carriage tipped over on its side and came to a complete stop. The bomb exploded, blowing not only the carriage up but also much of the roof of the cave. A ball of fire erupted through the roof and into what was located about the cave -- the park bathrooms. A terrified man dived for cover as flames shot out of the toilet he had been sitting on moments before, setting the toilet paper on fire and prompting a massive lawsuit against the city.
When the explosion and general chaos had died down, Mustadio walked into the cave and flipped a switch on the transporter, which, being built of mithril, had remained undamaged. Orlandu, Olan, and Delita appeared next to the machine.
"Good work," Orlandu said, giving the exhausted Mustadio a hearty slap on the back.
* * *
Meanwhile, the main party -- minus the FF Tactics gang -- had materialized back in the basement of the Umbrella Building. The newly-alive Sephiroth was leaning on the Deva System, waiting for them. "Hello," he greeted them casually.
"Yo," Barret said.
The group was on its way out of the room when the air in front of them suddenly sizzled. A sphere of lightning formed in the air, then gradually expanded. Inside appeared a flickering image of a tall man with long dark hair, wearing a blue suit and sunglasses. "I've been looking forward to meeting you," he said, speaking in a New Jersey accent.
"Zenogias!" Vincent exclaimed. Zenogias had been absent for thirty years, but the former Turk appeared just as Vincent had remembered him.
"You undoistand that Algus was one of my best men," Zenogias said. "There will be repoicussions for your acts."
"Repoicussions," Cait Sith imitated him, then giggled.
"You think yoi funny, don't you?" Zenogias said. "Whether you like it or not, money is on my side. We will bury you." Then the image vanished.
Barret stared up the long flight of stairs that led out of the basement. "I ain't climbin' no more stairs," he declared.
The party searched the room for an alternate exit, but found only doors into other parts of the basement. Then Sephiroth examined the Deva System. "Hey," he said. "Look at these wires." Seph was referring to a thick clump of wires that ran from the Deva System out through a circular tube in the roof, presumably terminating at the Sister Ray. "You think we could climb these?"
"Lemme try," Barret said. "I'm heaviest." Barret walked over to the wires and gave them a tug. The wires remained firm. He hefted himself off the ground and hung on the wires of a moment, then dropped off. "Looks okay to me," he reported. "I go last. Cait, you go first."
The cat nimbly scrambled up the wires and out through the white tube. He emerged on the surface, in a hole in the parking lot of the Shinra Building. "Okay," he called down. The others climbed out in turn -- Sephiroth carrying Red XIII, who couldn't climb due to his lack of opposable thumbs.
"We'd better be getting back to Costa Del Sol," Vincent said.
"Wait a sec," Rufus said. "They've obviously got some new guy in charge here to replace Hojo... maybe even Zenogias himself. Since we're here, we might as well pay them a little visit, if you catch my drift." Rufus nodded towards the wires they had come out on. The wires continued to run alongside the Shinra Building, reaching up towards the Sister Ray many stories above. "Those wires'll take us right to the top."
"Well?" Barret said to Cloud. "You be da leader. Whaddya think?"
Cloud shrugged. "It sounds like a good idea. Let's be off, then."
"@#%!*$%^$! You're doin' it again!"
"Sorry. Move out!"
The gang resumed their climb, this time scaling the entire 70 stories of the Shinra Building. It was a long climb, but much faster and more efficient than taking the infamous staircase, not to mention the total lack of any Umbrella resistance.
Many minutes later, they finally reached the top. "That was almost as bad as the stairs," Barret said as he, the last person, pulled himself onto the Sister Ray walkway.
Moving cautiously, the party advanced down the walkway and through the glass door into the 70th floor. The President's office had been cleaned up after the battle with Hojo, and there was a new occupant in the President's chair. He wore green armor and had light-colored hair, but his back was to the party and they could not see his face.
"Welcome," the new President of Shinra said without turning around. He was looking into a mirror on his desk that showed what was behind him. "I'd hoped I'd see you again." The President spun his chair, revealing himself to the party.
It was General Leo. "I finally managed to get a resurrection permit and get those stupid lawyers off my back," Leo said. "Now we have a score to settle."
"I think it's 45-42 going into the third quarter," Cait Sith said.
"Don't play the trombone with me!" Leo said, rising to his feet.
Rufus furrowed his eyebrows. "Don't what?"
"Never mind," Leo said. "And you, Mister Cat, did you receive permission to use the number 2?"
"What are you talking about?" Cait Sith said, equally puzzled.
"For your information," Leo said chillily, "the number 2 is a patent of Umbrella Corp. and may not be used without express written consent."
"You patented the number 2?" Red XIII said incredulously.
"Oh yes," Leo said. "And the letter 'A' as well. I would advise you not to use them unless you fancy facing a lawsuit."
"Tht's totlly insne!" Cloud shouted.
"You dmn Umbrell!" Barret added.
General Leo drew his sword, clearly aware of the fight that was brewing. His free hand moved to the control panel on his desk, ready to summon Umbrella security.
Suddenly, the left wall of the room disintegrated as the Tyrant-103 broke through. Although the monster was after the party, the noise caused Leo to turn to see what had caused it. Quickly, Cloud raced to attack, wielding his sword. Leo whirled and spun his sword rapidly. A field of energy rose out of the ground, knocking Cloud backwards onto the desk.
"Hey, Leo!" a voice shouted. Leo looked up. Ultros was sitting in the rafters, next to a 10-ton weight. "I owe you one, so I'm gonna jam up your fight!" Ultros started pushing on the weight. "Uh-oh," he said. "This is heavier than I thought. It's going to take me exactly 23 seconds to drop it."
Leo scurried out of the way of the weight. Meanwhile, the party was fighting the Tyrant-103. Barret fired at it with his gun-arm, and Rufus plugged it with his shotgun. The Tyrant-103 stumbled backwards and landed on Leo's chair. The chair slid across the floor and slammed into Leo just as Ultros pushed the weight.
Leo was struggling to regain his balance when he noticed the shadow over him. He looked up to see a huge 10-ton weight hurtling towards him. Leo held up a sign reading "WHY ME?" just as he was crushed.
Rufus shot the Tyrant-103 once more and it fell to the floor. Rufus, as always, searched it for some handy ammo.
Cloud sat up and hopped off the desk. In doing so, he accidentally put his hand on one of the many buttons on the desk. "Self-destruct system sequence initiated," a female voice announced over the building's PA system. "Once initiated, sequence cannot be reserved. All personnel report to the lowest train platform."
"Oh no," Rufus groaned. "Not again. Why does the Shinra Building always have to get blown up? Now where am I going to put my door?"
"It's sort of an architectural version of Wedge and Vicks, isn't it?" Cait Sith mused.
"Forget the door, we've got to get out of here," Red XIII urged. "Where's the lowest platform?" The voice was now starting to incessantly recite "Repeat -- all personnel to the lowest platform... repeat -- all personnel to the lowest platform..."
"How should I know?" Rufus shrugged. "There wasn't any 'lowest platform' until Umbrella moves in. I wouldn't have some stupid recording like that."
"Repeat -- all personnel to the lowest platform..."
Just then, Rufus's PHS phone rang. Before Rufus could answer, Cait Sith tore the phone from Rufus's belt and answered it himself. "Hello?" Cait Sith said. "You have reached Louie Ord's Tire Factory And Barbecue. May I help you?"
"Cait Sith?" Aerith's voice came through on the phone. "Is that you?"
"I'm sorry, you must have the wr-" Cait Sith suddenly found himself being hoisted off the ground by Cloud. Cloud attempted to wiggle the phone out from C.S.'s constantly moving hands.
"Hello? Hello? Is anybody there?" Aerith asked, worried.
A voice came back on the line. "Cloud speaking," Cloud said.
"Oh, hi, Cloud," Aerith said.
"We've got the Zodiac Stones," Cloud reported. "We're on our way back to Costa Del Sol. Everything's a-ok."
"No it's not!" Rufus screamed into the phone. "The whole Shinra Building's about to blow and we're stuck on the 70th floor!"
Another voice appeared on the other end of the line. "Hey, is that Cloud?" Tifa said. "Gimme that."
There were some brief scuffling sounds. "Give that back!" Aerith exclaimed. "I was the one that thought to call!"
"Cloud, wouldn't you rather talk to me, me or Aerith?" Tifa said. "So tell her to stop, okay?"
More scuffling sounds, then Aerith's voice came back. "Cloud? D- owwww! Let go of my hair!"
"You have too much of it anyway," Tifa said stuffily. The scuffling sounds continued. "Cloud! Aerith hit me!"
"Yeah, well you started it," Aerith said. "Take this!" There was a loud smacking sound.
"Oh yeah?" The fighting was constant -- and noisier -- now. Cloud, meanwhile, said and did nothing, listening casually to the brawl.
"I mean it, Tifa, give me the phone!"
"Let go of me, you little Cetra #(*$%!"
The noise had grown loud enough now that the whole party could hear it. "Wow, this is like Jerry Springer or something," Cait Sith said.
Rufus solved the problem by tearing the PHS phone away from Cloud. "This is Rufus," he said. "Cloud isn't here anymore."
The fighting died down. "Tifa hit me," Aerith said.
"You hit me first!"
"Did not!"
"Did too!"
"SHUT UP!" Rufus roared. That quited them, and then he continued, "Why did you call in the first place? We don't exactly have time to sit around and talk."
"I kept calling you guys, but I couldn't get through until now," Aerith said. She appeared to have commandeered the phone from Tifa. "What's going on?"
"The Shinra Building's about to blow and take us all with it, that's all," Rufus said bitterly.
"We'll come pick you up," Aerith said quickly. "You've got to disable the surveillance cameras."
"Got it," Rufus said, and hung up. He turned to the rest of the gang. "Quick, we have to take out the surveillance cameras. They're on the 64th floor. Follow me."
The party rushed to the stairs to the 69th floor and descended. "Repeat -- all personnel to the lowest platform... repeat -- all personnel to the lowest platform..." the PA voice continued to recite.
"That voice is really annoying," Sephiroth muttered.
"Don't look at me," Rufus said. "Umbrella put that in there."
Barret stopped as they approached the stairs. "Hey! We be needin' a keycard!"
Rufus pointed at a small heating duct on the wall. "We can go through the furnace room." Barret tore the grating off and they squeezed inside. The tunnel was dark, dusty, and extremely cramped.
After a short crawl, they approached another grate. Barret pushed it open and wiggled out into the furnace room. "Repeat -- all personnel to the lowest platform..." The upper furnace room was a tall, domed-ceiling, room that spanned many floors, and was crisscrossed by a maze of white girders that were being patrolled by Umbrella security robots. In the middle of the room was the furniture itself.
The party fought their way past the poorly-armed robots and descended the circling girders. Cloud cuonted the floors as they descended, and when they had reached the 67th floor, they climbed into another heating duct.
This duct emerged in the ceiling of the main security room. Suddenly finding themselves not standing on anything, the party plummeted down on top of some panicking SOLDIERs. Red XIII clawed at a SOLDIER that was trying to stab him, then leapt to the aid of Cid, who was pinned to the ground by another SOLDIER. Cait Sith ran into the corner and hid while Sephiroth and Vincent took out the remaining two SOLDIERs.
After the SOLDIERs had been defeated, Barret turned to the huge bank of monitors displaying activies in and around the Shinra Building, the majority of which consisted of people the about-to-explode building. "Repeat -- all personnel to the lowest platform... all personnel to the lowest platform."
Barret cocked his gun-arm and sprayed bullets all over the panel. Monitors shattered, sparks flew, and soon the whole thing was completely demolished. The group rushed out of the security room and into the main part of the 64th floor, just as the PA voice announced "FIVE MINUTES UNTIL DETONATION".
"Hey, we still got five minutes," Rufus said. "Let's go see if Umbrella's left anything cool in the storage room."
"Now?" Cloud said. "Are you insane?" But Rufus had already run off in that direction, so Cloud and the others had no choice but to follow him.
Rufus was rifling through the lockers, quickly opening and slamming the unlocked ones to see if they contained anything out of value. "Ah ha," Rufus said as he collected a gatling gun from one of the lockers. "I told you this would be worthwhile."
Cait Sith discovered a blowgun in Reeve's former locker. "Oh yeah," Cait Sith said. "I had this back when I was with Shinra. Wow, I have a weapon again." C.S. stuffed the blowgun in his cape for future use.
The Tyrant-103 chose that particular moment to come smashing through the wall. "Here we go again," Red XIII sighed. He cast a Flare spell on the Tyrant-103.
This did not have the desired effect. As it caught fire, the Tyrant started to transform, growing claws and becoming more monstrous in general. "My bad," Red XIII said.
Moving incredibly fast, the Tyrant lunged into the midst of the party, slashing about with his claws. Vincent transformed into the Death Gigas to combat it, but even was overwhelmed. He did manage to slow the monster's pursuit of the others, however. Rufus blasted it at with his new gatling gun as they fled.
"I've got an idea," Sephiroth said, ducking into the front room of the 64th floor. The others followed him. The wounded Vincent limped after them, doing his best to hold off the rampaging Tyrant.
Sephiroth dropped several 250-gil pieces into the Coke (a proud subsidiary of Umbrella Corp.) machine in the back of the room. There was no response. Sephiroth kicked the machine violently and it coughed up several cans of Coke. Seph grabbed one, shook it as hard as he could, and chucked it at the Tyrant as it ran into the room. The can struck the monster in its chest and exploded, sending the Tyrant temporarily reeling.
"Repeat -- all personnel to the lowest platform... all personnel the lowest platform..."
The others, following Sephiroth's example, grabbed the other cans and chucked them at the Tyrant, while Rufus continued to feed the machine. The barrage of Coke explosions were slowly knocking the Tyrant backwards, towards a window. "This is a pretty good idea," Rufus admitted. "If it wasn't for the fact that the building was about to blow up, it might have actually worked."
"Holy! Religion! Church!" Cait Sith shouted in an unsuccesful attempt to summon Fei and his Gear.
"Cloud!" a female voice called from outside the room. "Rufus!"
"Aerith!" Cloud shouted back. "We're in here!"
The Tyrant turned and jumped out into the hallway, presumably to attack Aerith. There were sounds of gunfire, and then the Tyrant collapsed on the floor. Aerith ran into the room. "The old gun in the staff trick," she explained, holding up her staff. The crystal part on the top had been flipped back on a hinge to reveal the barrel of an uzi. "Gets 'em every time. We've got the helicopter outside. Hurry!"
Rufus snatched some gatling gun ammunition off the fallen Tyrant. Seeing Vincent wounded, Aerith cast a FullCure on him. She led them to the broken window she had come in through. They stepped out and onto the fire escape of the Shinra Building.
"ONE MINUTE TO DETONATION," the PA voice said, then immediately reverted to "Repeat -- all personnel to the lowest platform... all personnel to the lowest platform..."
Jetpack-equipped Umbrella stormtroopers were circling the building. They appeared to be pursuing two seemingly-unarmed figures down the fire escape. "Palmer!" Rufus said, recognizing one of them. "Come on, we've got to save him!"
Rufus fired on the stormtroopers with his gatling gun. The Umbrella goons quickly returned fired with laser cannons. Aerith ran up to one of the flying soldiers, crying "Please don't hurt me!" The soldier paused briefly, and Aerith shot him with her staff-uzi.
"THIRTY SECONDS TO DETONATION. Repeat -- all personnel to the lowest platform... all personnel to the lowest platform..."
"@$%*&! We're not gonna make it!" Cid yelled. The stormtroopers scattered to avoid the imminent explosion.
A helicopter swooped alongside the building. Barret and Cloud dived in, and Rufus and the others followed them. Aerith grabbed a rope ladder from inside the helicopter and hurled it out to Palmer and Dr. Nicholas, who were standing on the fire escape. Dr. Nicholas caught it, and he scrambled it. Despite his weight, Palmer managed to pull himself in too.
The helicopter soared out into the sky, away from the Shinra Building. "Yes! We made it!" Cid exulted. He turned to Guido, who was piloting the helicopter. "Thanks, man. Your name still is a lot of %$@&*, though."
"Yeah, too bad we lost the Shinra Building again," Rufus said bitterly. As if on cue, the 70-story building erupted in flames behind them, exploding for the umpteenth time.
"Oh my God, they blew up the Shinra Building!" Cait Sith exclaimed.
"Bastards," Rufus muttered.
"At least that's over," Cloud sighed. But it wasn't. The helicopter was flying directly towards a fleet of Umbrella helicopters carrying personnel away from the Shinra Building.
Guido scrambled with the controls. The helicopter took a sharp left away from the Umbrella ones, but they had already been spotted. Guido readied some missiles, but Cloud stopped him. "They're carrying Umbrella staff," he said. "Most of them are innocent. We don't want to kill them."
"All those damn Umbrella be guilty!" Barret shouted. Rufus vigorously nodded agreement.
The matter was settled when the Umbrella helicopters locked their own missiles on Guido's. Guido fired off one missile, blowing one helicopter out of the sky. Some enemy missiles, however, were rapidly speeding towards them.
Vincent, back in his normal form, threw open the door of the helicopter. He leaned out the door and carefully shot each of the missiles with his Death Penalty, denotating them harmlessly in mid-air.
The helicopter continued north, flying towards the ocean. When they were safely away from the Umbrella helicopters, Vincent crawled back inside and closed the door. "There's something out there," he cautioned, "heading towards us. It's not a missile."
It was a dragon. The rear of the helicopter was torn wide open by a pair of powerful claws -- powerful enough to shread metal like tissue paper. General Leo's golden dragon crashed through the gap. "Persona!" Guido shouted, raising his hand. A huge black winged demon appeared in the air over Guido and sent a wave of fire at the dragon.
The dragon was temporarily halted, but that was about it. It breathed out a blast of lighting, blasting Vincent, Cid, and Aerith. "Cherry Blossom!" Cloud cried. He slashed with his sword, releasing a ball of electricity into the air. Electricty rained down on the dragon, and out of the explosions rose a huge brick of ice that also smashed onto the dragon. Then a burst of fire exploded from the dragon. The dragon tumbled back out of the helicopter, dead.
Then it really was over. The helicopter was flying out over the ocean north of Midgar, and there were absolutely no enemies in sight. "Whew," Rufus sighed, collapsing on the floor. "First the carriage ride and then the Shinra Building. That was enough action for eight chapters."
| Next chapter: The Truth About Cats and Demons |