Chapter Text
The tensions that had hung over the slums of Sector 7 have finally burst into clamor. There’s an angry crowd of protesters that’s formed around the perimeter of the pillar at the center of town. Shinra troops have the place surrounded and are keeping everyone out beyond the fence.
“Get away from the pillar! We don’t need you here!”
“Is someone really gonna drop the plate!? Are they crazy!?”
“Avalanche? Shinra? Who cares!? No one should be near it!”
The troops remain as rigid as ever and ignore the slung insults and even dirt coming their way. Someone even picks up a rock and chucks it at one of the guards, and while it does rattle him a little, it harmlessly bounces off of his helmet. For now, they’re under orders just to guard the perimeter, but as soon as anyone dares to step past this arbitrary line they’ve set, they will start shooting. The people have been warned, but they refuse to leave. A few among them exchange glances as if ready to enact a plan.
Wedge sifts through the crowd and busts out the front. “Hey! Get these troops and bots outta here! You’re just asking for trouble like this!” When the guards still don’t respond, he dares to rush forward and plead with them up close. “Guys, think about it! Why would you even be under orders to-”
No sooner than he steps out of line, the guards draw their guns and begin to fire at his feet. He just barely avoids them, but won’t back off just yet. If anything, he seems rather bold to press closer.
“Hey! What’s the big deal!? We’re all just concerned citizens here- Argh!”
The warning shots are over. This time, they hit him directly in the chest and he falls over. The crowd panics and many of them scatter. Some shout over the outcry and fear.
“What the hell is their problem!?”
“They really are crazy!”
“Everyone, get out of Sector 7! It’s not safe!”
A trio of simply dressed working men carry Wedge to safety. They take him far away enough so the guards are out of range of hearing them, and then set him back down on the ground.
“Wedge, you alright?” one of them asks rather calmly.
“Ugh… yeah.” He sits back up and gives his chest a firm pat, knocking against something tough under his shirt. “Good thing we got these protective vests… It still stung a little, though.”
Another remarks in disbelief, “Ugh. I can’t believe they’d just start shooting! What if they actually injured any of the innocents?”
“That’s Shinra for ya. No mercy…” the third mutters.
The first man turns back to Wedge and says, “Just say the word, Wedge. We’ll go fetch the guns.”
But he waves his arm and gets back up to his feet. “Wait. Not yet.”
“Why? What are we waiting for?”
“The signal, of course.” Wedge grins back with confidence. “Wait for a certain bright flash of light near the bar.”
The other three simply exchange confused looks and shrugs, but Wedge seems pretty insistent about this. And almost as if on cue, a flash of light off by Seventh Heaven then catches their attention. Ruby, Aerith, and Red have returned and they rush on over toward the pillar.
“Guys! Over here!” Wedge calls to them, waving excitedly.
“Wedge, report!” Ruby demands.
He even gives her a salute. “Bad news: Shinra troops have the pillar surrounded!”
“Yeah. I can tell. Hey, weren’t you supposed to be watching over Marlene?”
“Oh, don’t worry! That nice old lady, Marle, volunteered to watch her for me. I couldn’t just wait back and let things get out of hand here, after all.”
“Ah.”
Aerith nods with determination. “Don’t worry. You guys can leave this to us. We’ll make sure the pillar won’t fall.”
“If anything, even you two can leave it to me,” Ruby insists with a smug smirk, “I’m more than enough to stop the bomb.”
Red raises an eyebrow in concern, though. “Are you sure? We can at least help give you some cover while you work on that.”
“Yeah. Go with Wedge and the rest to evacuate as many people as possible. I won’t let the plate fall regardless, but Shinra won’t be too happy to know that their plans will fail. At least, I get the feeling that the residents aren’t gonna be free from their wrath in the near future, so better safe than sorry.”
He nods back. “Alright. Good luck to you, Ruby.”
“Heh. Thanks, but I won’t need it.”
And with but a quick salute to everyone, she runs off for the pillar by herself. They all watch her go and then turn back to each other.
“Wait. Wedge, that was who you were waiting for? You sure we shouldn’t go in and help?”
“Yep! Don’t worry. When she says she’s got it, then she’s got it. That’s the Ruby Guarantee.”
“Hey… Wait a minute. I remember her now,” another of the men comments, “Wasn’t there some talk around town about a girl who uses light magic or something?”
“Oh, yeah. Now that you mention it, I think I remember hearing about a commotion in front of Seventh Heaven a while back. People say it was like some divine intervention type of stuff, but who knows…”
Ruby has run off far enough that their conversation drifts off into background noise. She guns straight for the fence around the pillar. The two guards on standby are frankly shocked that just a single young woman seems to be charging at them.
“Hold it! No one’s allowed near the pillar!”
“Stop or we’ll shoot!”
Before they can even aim their guns, though, they witness something quite bizarre: two mighty dragon wings pop out from her back in a flash of light and she leaps into the air. They’re too startled and busy panicking to even start firing on her as she sails right over them and the fence entirely.
“Intruder detected! All units, fire at will!”
The sentries and paratroopers that had been quietly patrolling the tower waste no time firing away as soon as she appears in their range. However, not a single one of them can get a hit in. With a single smooth motion, she shoots high into the air and soars straight to top platform. Plenty of them below give chase and the ones waiting for her at the top begin shooting at her as well, but they’re just annoying, buzzing flies at this point.
And then, she lays down a counterattack. As soon as she lands onto the catwalk before the pillar’s control system, she slams her hands onto the platform with a spell already ready to cast. Suddenly, several smaller pillars of light sprout from the ground below and shoot straight up through every level of rafters and stairs, immediately obliterating any mobile targets in her vicinity. The sentries, rocket launchers, and paratroopers alike vanish in an instant; swept away into the ether like leaves to a broom.
Ruby then helps herself to the central computer that controls the pillar’s self-destruct system. Now, normally, the computer would only register input from an authorized source – such as an elite agent working for Shinra – but she finally has a chance to flex her coding skills. See, there are a few simple ways that a hacker can access someone’s account. One of the most common ways is phishing, or acquiring a user’s information without the person’s express permission, but that doesn’t apply here. It’s not like she has data from Shinra’s internal databases on hand at the moment. Another simpler way is much more direct: Ruby probably could just mug Reno or Rude for their ID cards when they show up. But, that’s a little brutish even for her. And certainly not the last, but a sneakier alternative is through abusing the encryption format itself. Now, usually this method requires knowing or at least having access to a system’s means of encryption, but hey, nothing a little check through the Debug Room won’t fix.
But she’s not quite in the mood to deal with “that guy” just yet. She’ll just access it through her personal computer. She opens up her trusty wrist guard again and dials a few things in to help her search. In less than a second, she pulls up references regarding Shinra’s rather liberal usage of a single encryption format across many of their more outdated systems – including that behind the Sector 7 pillar. Seems like they haven’t updated this stuff in years; go figure with those penny pinchers. She then writes in a simple program to create a cypher based on said encryption data and lets it run. In the meantime, she also codes up the option for her computer to link up to this computer wirelessly. It’s all completed within a single minute, and then she simply plants said cypher program into the pillar control system.
Bingo. She’s in. From here, it’s just a matter of reprogramming the bomb so that it won’t go off.
However, just as she’s getting to that, a Shinra helicopter finally arrives on the scene, and without even a warning, it begins to fire on her. She leaps out of the way in an instant – not for her own sake, but for the safety of the computer – and turns to face the incoming aggressors.
“Of course we’d find you here…”
Reno leaps out from the chopper and lands with a smooth roll upon the catwalk. He’s not alone; those pesky Mark III Monodrives fly around him as if they were being commanded by his electric baton.
Ruby snorts back. “Really? You’re coming at me with those things again? You weren’t impressed with the last time I blew them all up?”
“Whatever you did last time doesn’t count. We’re not here for you anyway.”
“Uh-huh. You’re here to activate the bomb.”
“Heh. So you already know. That makes things easier.” He whips out his electric baton and gets into a battle stance. “Don’t think things will go as easy as last time! I’m not playing around anymore.”
She shrugs. “Funny. I was about to say that I’m still playing around.”
That does tick him off a little. “Then get serious!”
He’s the first to charge in, but even before he can get in a few steps, she moves so fast that he’s completely caught off-guard. She grabs him, spins about on one foot, and just flings him away off the platform.
“Whaaa!?”
By some miracle, the helicopter swerves over in time to let Reno catch onto one of its legs, so he doesn’t fall too far. However, Ruby’s not out of the worst just yet. As soon as she lunged at him, the Monodrives were set to trigger the trapping pyramid again. She hops back out of the way as the tetrahedral force field buzzes alive and whips out her knife. She jams it into one of the lower corners, letting it explode. Still too easy.
With one of them down, the Monodrives resort to plan B: they split off far apart and begin to zip about in the air erratically. Despite that, they still seem to maintain positions in a way as to preserve a triangular shape between them that seems to flash in and out. Out of curiosity, Ruby lets them perform their dance around her. It seems like they’re charging up some powerful attack. What’s the worst that they’d have anyway?
As it turns out, it’s Trine, the ultimate non-Summon lightning magic. As soon as the Monodrives finish zipping about, they unload a powerful shock at the center of their “tetrahedron”.
Ouch… this attack actually hurt her! If she could see her own HP bar, it might have been chipped enough to be noticeable for once. That said, it’s nowhere near as bad as that time when the three Cactuars fired their Thousand Needles all at once. Still, credit where credit is due; this one stung her a little more than she was expecting. She’s not paralyzed and simply shakes off the jitters.
The three Monodrives are still recovering from their combo attack, so it doesn’t look like they’ll be able to use the spell again any time soon. Ruby’s seen enough anyway. She jumps at each of them and cuts them apart one by one, and turns back to the chopper with a rather bored look, daring them to step close again.
Reno is still hanging off of the helicopter’s leg and is staring in stunned silence at what he’d just witnessed. Even Rude, who had been ready to keep firing from his chopper hesitates to make his move.
“For crying out loud, what kind of monster is she…?” Reno mutters to himself. He then calls up to his partner, “Hey, Rude! What’s the plan now?”
“…Plan B, I suppose.”
“Man… This sucks. It feels like we don’t even have a point being here.”
“Climb on. We have to fall back.”
Reno grumbles, but obliges. He swings himself back up into the cockpit and shuts the door as he drops onto the backseat with a grumpy frown. Rude swings the chopper back around and begins to fly off.
However, just as they try to fly off, the helicopter is suddenly stopped in midair and throws them both forward just by inertia. As they try to recollect themselves, they then freeze up when they realize that the helicopter’s tail has been seized by Ruby in both arms.
“W-whoa! Hey! What’s the big idea, you crazy kid!?”
She doesn’t answer him. Instead, she swings around the chopper by the tail until both of them fall out of it and back onto the catwalk. And checking one last time that no one else is left inside, she promptly cracks the chopper’s tail in her arms without snapping the whole thing in two and chucks it far away in the direction of a certain train graveyard. She doesn’t even watch it fly off and explode in the distance. Instead, she drops right back down onto the platform with some cool swagger as she spreads her wings to assert dominance.
“Argh…”
Reno and Rude climb back to their feet relatively unharmed, though Rude has to readjust his shades as they went a little lopsided when they fell. But as they face her again, they’re both thoroughly shaken and hesitant to keep fighting.
Reno is still pissed enough to yell at her, though. “What the hell!? Can’t we even retreat in peace, you bitch!?”
Rude asks more calmly, “…What do you want with us?”
At first, she doesn’t reply and simply dismisses her wings in another flash. Then, as she glances off to think it over, she makes a disappointed shrug and admits, “To be honest, I’m not sure what I was even expecting. Maybe I just had the inkling of hope that I could get some kind of challenge out of you guys, but here we are.” She looks back to them with a serious frown. “You wanna fight? I’m up. I won’t even call for back-up.”
“Seriously?” Reno snorts, “I think we got the message. You’re too much to tackle right now.” He waves it away. “Maybe check back with us later when we get better upgrades or something.”
“Yeah, that’s a fair point.” She shrugs. “Welp, I guess I could always just take you two hostage. How about you just wait here while I finish hacking this thing?”
“Oh, come on! You’re gonna make us watch you ruin our job even further? You’re even more ruthless than I thought.”
“The alternative is that I drop you two off in the train graveyard with your chopper – or what remains of it.”
He raises his hands in surrender, but still keeps his scowl. “Alright, alright! We give. You do your thing…”
Rude has been silent throughout this entire awkward conversation, but he simply takes off his shades and gives them a polish again. There’s nothing else to be said at this point anyway.
Ruby returns to the computer and accesses the system’s protocol to the self-destruct mechanism. If there’s one catch to the way it’s been programmed, it’s that any careless alteration of the code will still activate the mechanism. However, as with many types of code that have such a catch-all scenario, all she has to do is tweak the catch’s procedure. She returns to her wrist guard computer to edit said procedure and submits the changes.
As if on cue, the system protocol initiates and the self-destruct mechanism is activated. However, the program was originally set so that there would be a mandatory wait time before the actual activation of the bomb that takes place. Previously, this was a mere 10 minutes; just enough time for any Turks to get in and get out without much hassle. Now, thanks to Ruby, it’s been changed to, oh, 1 billion seconds sounds good enough – or in other words, 30+ years.
She turns back to the two Turks with a shrug and a satisfied grin. “Whoops, I guess I triggered the bomb anyway. Just give it 30 or so years, though. It’s a slow burner.”
“…”
Neither man is amused, but neither wants to argue with her either. Reno is just grinding his teeth in frustration. Not only does she make an absolute joke of them in battle; she can even make an absolute joke of the company they work for just by hacking into their systems. Never mind the potential overtime they’ll have to serve to clean up this shit; they might just be at risk of being fired or at least demoted to some chump service job where they can’t do anything.
Like a proper lady, Ruby brings a hand over her mouth as she chuckles and muses to herself. If things are going this easy, she wonders how things are going for the rest of her friends back at Shinra HQ.
~
It feels like there’s no end to the fighting. The moment Cloud, Barret, and Tifa were dropped off in the Drum, they were forcibly initiated into a series of back-to-back battles with just about all of Hojo’s robo-sentries and lab monsters. For the most part, their coordinated teamwork allowed them to take out every enemy they’ve encountered so far – M.O.T.H. Units, Sledgeworms, Zenenes on the loose and even a gaggle of Brain Pods – though things did get a little shaky there when one of those naughty Sledgeworms jumped Barret and knocked him for a spin with its hammer. In his confused daze, he started firing off wildly (and missing wildly) until Cloud smacked him back to sense with the flat side of his sword. From there, Tifa cleaned up and even mediated things between the two men.
However, it’s obvious that the constant battles has taken their toll on them. Cloud has a great affinity for magic and had been pinpoint with his Cure casts while he wasn’t laying on the pain himself. Tifa’s agility let her toss around Potions and Ethers in a pinch and strike hard with precision. And of course, Barret has been their damage sponge who tanked most of the hits and fired back every chance he got. However, it’s not a full-proof strategy; that incident with the Sledgeworm was a prime example of what could go wrong. But more than that, none of them have such powerful spells or even the right Support Materia that would allow them to break through these waves, so they’ve burned through their remaining Potions and Ethers a little too quickly.
Things are looking grim, to be honest. They knew to expect tough battles ahead, but they still underestimated how quickly their resources would run out. Maybe it was just coincidence or maybe it was actually karma; but since Ruby had been involved in so many of their battles up to this point, they’d been getting away with a lot of situations that would have been hard scrapes otherwise. Now that she isn’t here to cover them for once, Cloud has begun to realize how little “experience” they’ve gathered so far. In other words, they’re severely underleveled and underprepared for this particular arena.
After cleaning up yet another wave of Brain Pods and Zenenes, the noxious gases these creatures have left behind is suffocating. It’s already bad enough that they’ve run low on Antidotes, but all this running around between levels and being repeatedly ambushed by M.O.T.H. Units and Sledgeworms along the way has left them lost and disoriented. Not to mention, this place is already a maze of catwalks, transparent sealed gates, and dead ends everywhere. Just where is the exit to this place!?
Finally, the team arrive upon what seems to be a round metal door that’s sealed tight with a massive wheel to turn to get it open. It looks like it’s not designed for humans to operate, so even when the three of them work together to try to pry it open, it doesn’t budge at all. Nor does shooting at it or slashing it seem to work either.
“You sure this is the exit…?” Barret grumbles as he heaves in exhausted panting.
“No…” Cloud bitterly admits, likewise panting in exhaustion in this polluted air.
“But it is a door. It has to lead somewhere, doesn’t it?” Tifa suggests.
She looks around to see if they can’t find some kind of device to operate it. Unfortunately, while there is some kind of computer terminal nearby, she can’t access it at all. It’s blocked off by a transparent metal gate, almost as if it were designed to be extra frustrating to anyone who happens to be stuck in a place like this.
Instead, the trio are once again greeted by the sinister yet snarky voice of Hojo over the intercom: “My, my. Stuck already, are we? Perhaps you should reconsider opening that door…”
As there isn’t any particular place where the voice seems to be transmitted through, Barret looks around them and shouts, “Shut up! Stop throwing your damn experiments at us and show yourself, you damn coward!”
“What’s gonna be behind this door?” Cloud asks.
“Hehehe… If you’re so eager to find out, I’ll be happy to show you.”
Tifa winces. “That doesn’t sound good…”
Hojo’s voice then goes silent as the intercom shuts off once more. Instead, they’re met with the sounds of the round mechanical door whirring into action. As the three step back from it, it finally unlatches and swings open on its own. Inside, there’s a large empty-looking tunnel that stretches off to some other section of the lab.
However, they don’t dare step forward into it just yet. There’s still more sounds of whirring machinery coming from down the tunnel, as if something else were coming this way. They brace themselves for yet another tough fight. Shortly, they meet their latest adversary: a huge eel-like machine made up of green plates and sharp spikes down its entire body and a buzzing chainsaw for a mouth flies out from the tunnel as if on a mission to tear through anything that gets in its way.
Wait. Or is it supposed to be a centipede made of swords? Is THAT what Ruby was talking about!?
Its chainsaw revs up with a fury as it charges them. They all leap out of the way in time, but Cloud happens to be split off from Barret and Tifa.
“Cloud!”
He doesn’t even get time to consider his next move when the Swordipede swings right for him with that threatening chainsaw. He can only keep jumping back and out of the way as the thing slashes around him and buries itself into the catwalk where he stands. It smashes through, boring a large hole in the path that can’t be easily leapt over, and unapologetically swerves back up again to charge at him again.
Cloud has already had enough of this damn eel. As it lunges at him again, he leaps up high and with a front flip, smashes his sword into the machine’s head with a Braver. Be it luck or skill or just brute strength, he so happens to plant the sword deep into its head.
However, the thing doesn’t blow up. It instead grows even more erratic as if it were angered. It starts rapidly zipping back and forth in the air to shake him off, and Cloud ends up losing grip on his sword as he’s flung off and plunges into the depths of the Drum below.
“Cloud!!” Tifa rushes to the railing, but can only helplessly watch him fall.
“Tifa, get back!”
Barret pulls her back just in time for the Swordipede to smash into their side of the catwalk. He fires back with his own fury, but unlike with Cloud’s Buster Sword, his bullets don’t dig nearly so deep as to harm the machine very much. But that’s never stopped Barret from keeping up the pressure.
Tifa climbs back to her feet, swearing under her breath. They’ve come this far already; they can’t go losing Cloud now. They can’t wait for Ruby to show up either; she must still be busy back in Sector 7. They have to beat this thing by themselves. It’s now or never.
While Barret continues his barrage, the Swordipede tries to retreat from the incessant rattling of bullets. Tifa runs along the path to chase after it and to find a good place to leap off at the railing. When it swerves back around to target her, she climbs the rails and leaps off to meet it head-on. She just narrowly avoids the chainsaw blades, catapults herself over it using the Buster Sword as a pivot, and swings around to land onto the machine’s head. She then immediately drives a hard Dive Kick right at the back of its head, sending it crashing into the railing instead. She then neatly leaps off of it as it spirals downward, crackling with sparks and dented metal.
However, it’s not done yet. Now furious itself, the Swordipede swings back up once more in a higher arc and begins to spin horizontally with its massive sword-spikes pointed out all around. It’s essentially turned itself into a giant chainsaw blade, and it flies right at the duo. While they manage to duck out of the way, it’s a different story when the Swordipede boomerangs back around at a perpendicular slant and razes the catwalk like a giant pair of shears. Though Tifa still gets out of the way, Barret tries to block the thing with his Gatling Gun. It doesn’t protect him completely, but he’s able to knock it off-kilter and it continues to rip into another part of the walls instead. However, as he raises his gun to fire it again, he realizes the bullets don’t come out.
“Shit! A jam!? Now!?” he yells as he tries to knock it back into form.
“Barret! Watch out!”
“Whoa!”
He narrowly avoids the Swordipede swerving right back at him with blades pointed. While it’s still spinning like this, though, it’s impossible for either of them to get too close or even land on it. Talk about the worst timing for Barret’s gun to jam. The only silver lining here is that the Swordipede doesn’t have any long-ranged attacks of its own to be able to stay in the back and camp them out. It has to approach, and it does so with a vengeance.
As much as he hates to put his gun through the ringer like this, Barret can’t really dodge this thing’s attacks. However, as it comes at him again, suddenly Tifa jumps in to shove him aside.
“Tifa!?”
“Aah!!”
She’s likewise cut and flung back against the back wall. Barret still manages to smash his gun right into the machine’s head while it flies by and sends it spiraling back down again. He then rushes over to Tifa to check on her.
“Are you crazy!? Why’d you take that hit!?”
“Ugh… I… didn’t want your gun to take any worse. You still need it…”
“Get a hold of yourself! I still need you too! And Cloud’s not done! He’s coming back up right now!”
“…?”
Tifa sits back up and desperately looks around for the guy, but he still isn’t back yet.
Barret sighs and admits, “…Probably. He fell pretty far.”
She turns back to him with a fearful look. “Wait. Where’s the machine?”
They turn back out to find that the Swordipede isn’t coming back up as it has been. However, there are still the sounds of metal ripping against metal down below.
While Barret and Tifa were struggling against the thing, Cloud found himself having landed pretty far down the levels and hit the wider platform on level 3 hard. Ouch. But he can still get up and keep fighting… that is, if he still had his sword. Shit. Now what?
Then, as if there was still some hidden blessing left for him, he happens upon a nearby chest. Desperately hoping that it has something useful, he pries it open and digs out its contents. It is indeed something he can use. In fact, it’s a large dual-bladed sword which wavy blades weave together into an almost teardrop shape from the hilt – the Twin Stinger.
Now we’re talking. Cloud snatches it and rushes off for the stairs.
He doesn’t actually have to wait too long when he notices the metal beast spiraling back down from above. Even as its head seems to be badly dented and crackling with electricity, it locks its sights back onto him and lunges recklessly with a Live Wire. But even though he just got this sword, almost as if by instinct, Cloud strikes a Counterstance and parries the attack, knocking the thing back. He then leaps onto its head again to rescue his poor Buster Sword.
By now, the Swordipede is acting up so much as if it were ready to go on a kamikaze mission now. It flies right back up with Cloud in tow, who now keeps a firm grip on his old sword while still wielding the new.
“It’s coming back!” Barret yells.
Tifa climbs back to her feet. She may be bruised and bleeding now, but she still got some fight left in her. But they’re both shocked to see that the Swordipede is carrying new luggage.
“Cloud!?”
“Grraaaah!!”
He finally wrenches the Buster Sword free from its scrap prison and proceeds to whale on the machine that held it for so long with both his swords. He actually manages to strike it hard and fast enough that it can’t immediately return to spinning around for another round of its Saw-Toothed Spin. As it tries to rid itself of its passenger, the Swordipede rams itself headfirst into a nearby wall, to which Cloud simply leaps off of it and back onto the platform where Barret and Tifa have been waiting.
“Cloud!” Tifa looks overjoyed as if she’s ready to tear up already.
“Sorry to keep you waiting.”
“Forget about it! Let’s finish this thing!” Barret shouts triumphantly.
The Swordipede has once again flown back up and out of reach, but then resumes its spinning pattern once more. But by now, Barret has somehow fixed up his jam and is firing away again. His bullets hit the less armored body and are plenty more effective this time, but then are rendered ineffective again once the machine regains its wild spin. However, this time, he’s not messing around anymore. He had been charging up a different attack while he was firing away again, and now it’s ready.
“Eat this, ya damn fish!!”
Barret unloads a Fire in the Hole directly at the thing, and this huge shot blows it up right out of its spin. It crash-lands onto their platform in a smoking, sparking heap, but it can still get up again.
“Cloud! Let’s go!”
Not for long. Tifa rushes in first with a mad flurry of Beat Rush into a mighty Somersault that kicks it right over to Cloud, who catches the mess with both his swords. And as if he were suddenly a master chef, he rips at it from both sides in a mirrored Cross-Slash – or rather, perhaps one could even say, a W-Cross Slash – and shears the entire thing in two. At long last, the metallic beast gives in and ends with a glorious boom as Cloud jumps back and swings the Buster Sword overhead in victory.
“Yeah!!” Barret pumps a fist in the air. “Now that’s how you do it!”
Tifa is panting hard in exhaustion herself, but makes a relieved smile. “We did it…”
Cloud wastes no time depleting the last of his MP to cast one last Cure for her, and she can get back to her feet.
“Thanks, Cloud.”
“Don’t mention it.”
“Hey… how about sharing some of that magic here too?” Barret then asks.
Cloud snorts back. “Sorry, but I’m out. We’re gonna have to get outta here to rest and restock on Ethers.”
“Tch… fine. Tifa needed it more anyway.”
Their short victory lap is promptly interrupted by clapping sounds coming from the intercom, and they all return to being pissed off.
“Bravo, my newest experiments! You’ve done well to keep up this far.”
“Enough of your damn announcements! Get out here already so we can beat your ass!” Barret snaps back as usual.
“Hahaha… Sorry to say, I’m a fair bit busy these days, so I don’t have that much time to keep entertaining you. As a matter of fact, I’ve gathered enough data for now…” He pauses and then adds in a mutter that’s still audible, “Though I must say, I’m a little disappointed that the Dragoness didn’t even bother to show.”
“Hah! Shows what you know. We didn’t even need Ruby for your crappy hunk-a-junks!”
Hojo simply ignores him and moves on, “Perhaps that will have to wait for another time. Very well, you’re all dismissed.”
“Wait! Hojo!” Cloud calls after him, “Does the door that you opened lead back down to the main lab?”
The man has already left and the intercom goes silent once more. Cloud swears under his breath and turns back to the others.
“Well, looks like we’re on our own again.”
“Hmph! Don’t matter. We got through all the worst parts, so we should be in the clear now! Let’s blow this joint already!”
And without a hint of hesitation, Barret charges on ahead through the huge, poorly lit tunnel that awaits them. Cloud sighs and Tifa smiles as they watch him go.
She nods with a look of determination. “Well, we should still be careful in case there’s anything else, but he has a point. We ought to be alright from here. Let’s go, Cloud.”
And with that, they hurry after Barret down the tunnel.
~
Ruby nods to herself with an assured smile. Yeah… they’re probably doing just fine.
But now that she thinks it over again, maybe things have been going a bit too easy. Surely, not everything in this adventure is going to be this easy for the rest of the journey, right? Well, she did cheat herself to become all-powerful from the start, so that much was definitely on her. But then the weird encounter with Jenova seemed to awaken some other latent power in her that has something to do with Rubia. She was still able to get another boost to her abilities through what basically amounts to a plot device. At this rate, she really has to wonder what else they’ll be facing that would even remotely trouble her anymore. Boy, would she hate it if she’d effectively just turned the whole story boring.
On that thought, she even secretly wishes that Sephiroth would make a move already. It’s only been the occasional “prank” here and general asshattery there so far from him, and it doesn’t feel like he’s a real threat. Granted, he did creep her out that one time and made her question what the hell she’s even doing in this world, but fine, he got one over her. He gets one and only one. The next time they meet, she ought to already have gained resistance to his wiles.
Ruby has been staring off into space for a bit thinking it over when her musings are interrupted by a sudden change on the computer screen before her. It’s Tseng on video call from somewhere.
“Reno, Rude. Report.”
Reno groans and Rude shakes his head. Reno then speaks for the both of them: “Bad news, Boss. This kid got in the way and hacked the control.”
Ruby pulls down on her eye and sticks her tongue out at Tseng. “It’s not gonna blow for another 30 years. Hope you guys have a backup plan in the works!”
“…” Tseng gives the other two some threatening side-eye, but rather quickly moves on. “As a matter of fact, we do.”
Ruby stops and blinks. “Uh, you do?”
He nods back. “Incidentally, there is a backup protocol in the case that the primary self-destruct mechanism fails. A secondary set of smaller bombs set around the main one have also been planted in the central pillar of each sector.”
Ruby’s jaw drops in disturbed horror. “What!? More bombs!?”
“If you must know, these ones cannot be hacked. They’re set on a fixed time limit as soon as the corresponding main bomb is activated. In the case that the main one doesn’t go off on its own, the rest will still follow through and help detonate the main one regardless.”
“What the hell is wrong with Shinra!?” she freaks out, “Why are ya’ll so ready to blow yourselves up!? In every sector, even!?? Is the infrastructure of this city just made of bombs!!??”
“You have 15 minutes. Use them wisely.”
Reno then slides in with a frantic wave of his hand. “Hey, Boss? Sorry to butt in, but we got a problem here. The kid also took our chopper and threw it away.”
“I’ll be right over. We’ve just picked up our guest of honor, after all.”
Ruby snaps back to attention. “Guest?”
Then, Tseng reveals a slim smirk and pans the camera over to the person sitting beside him. It looks like he’s broadcasting this call from a different helicopter. Oh, but of course things would turn out like this.
“Aerith!”
“Ruby! I’m sorry, but this is as much as I can do now.”
“What happened? Where’s Red?”
“We ran into some trouble with those yellow orb-things and he got trapped in the pyramid. I couldn’t get him out.”
“Ugh, those things again?”
Reno snickers to himself. “Heh. The rest of you aren’t so tough without your dragon, are ya?”
Ruby fires off a vicious glare that nearly stuns him just by that alone. She then turns back to Aerith. “Did you guys stop by the bar, at least? What about Marlene and Wedge’s cats?”
“I asked Tseng to send them to my place in Sector 5, so they’ll be fine. But in exchange, I have to go with him.”
“Okay. Oh, and wasn’t Marle watching over them too?”
“She was. We were going to get them all out when we ran into Tseng. He also offered to give her a ride, but she refused. She’s gone to help with the rest of the evacuation.”
Suddenly, Tseng moves the camera back. “Rest assured, I take any deals I take with the utmost care and attention. I’ve requested for another helicopter to escort them. In the meantime, I’ll be accompanying Aerith back to HQ as planned. As for you…”
Ruby cuts him off with a disgruntled growl. “Yeah, yeah. You also want me to head back there, right?”
“Well, that would be ideal, but I understand that we might not be able to force you.”
“Glad we’re on the same page there. But if you dare lay a hand on Aerith…”
Tseng frowns. “I have no intention of hurting her. However, I can’t guarantee what may happen to her after I deliver her back to the labs.”
“Yeah, yeah. I get it. I’m not leaving her in there.”
“Ruby, wait!” Aerith’s voice comes through from aside even though the camera isn’t on her anymore. “It’s okay. You don’t have to worry about me. Just focus on saving everyone else first, and then you can come pick me up later.”
“Oh, that’s exactly the plan, Cuz. Just sit tight. I’ll be with you soon enough. Leave the rest to me.”
“Okay, good. Just checking.”
Tseng glances aside to her and back to Ruby, and sighs to himself. “…We may have to reconsider alternatives in the case of yet another escape.”
“Sure thing, Boss. If you know how to stop a dragon God who can warp everywhere, I’m all ears,” Reno remarks sarcastically.
“We can discuss that another time, Reno,” he replies with a subtle tone of disapproval at his snark. And with that, the video call ends.
Shortly, the helicopter with him and Aerith has arrived by the pillar from elsewhere in Sector 7. While Reno and Rude quickly hop on as soon as the door opens for them, Ruby remains outside. Aerith makes a sad smile and waves a hand to her, to which Ruby returns a salute, and the door closes up again. The helicopter then flies off.
Ruby runs off and hops over the railing to spread her wings once more. As she zips across town, she quickly returns to Seventh Heaven, where she spots another helicopter in the vicinity that has arrived as well, as Tseng had arranged per Aerith’s request. However, she also notices another squad of Mark III Monodrives nearby that have captured Red, and even before the backup chopper can reach the ground, Ruby shoots straight to the ground and blows up all of the Monodrives in an instant.
Red hops out from the collapsing force field. “Ruby! I’m sorry!” He bows his head in shame. “I let Aerith be captured.”
“Don’t worry about it. Cloud and the others are still back there too, so we’ll go back for them all later.”
“A-are you sure? You’re not troubled in the least by this…”
Ruby gives him a reassuring nod. “Relax. If anything, I’m more concerned that these people won’t have enough time to get out.”
“Were you able to do something about the bomb?”
“Yes, I even delayed it by 30 years. The problem is the backup bombs that will be triggered anyway if the main one doesn’t blow. We only have about 15 minutes.”
“Hmm, that is troubling…” He then glances off two different directions toward Sector 6 and then 8, and back to her. “In any case, Wedge and the other Avalanche members have been getting the word out, and aside from a few odd exceptions, the residents have begun to evacuate. However, it seems the gate to Sector 8 is sealed shut and cannot be opened, and there seems to be some sort of holdup at the entrance to Sector 6 as well.”
“I expected as much for Sector 8. Ever since the first bombing incident, that side’s been blocked off to anyone.” She strikes a thinking pose as she continues, “As for Sector 6’s side, if I recall, there are just a couple stubborn guards at the fence there. You can go help them through.”
“Me?”
“Yeah. Just yell at them to open up.” She snickers. “I’m sure they’d be shocked enough that the mob would be able to rush them. They are just two lone guards.”
“Well, alright. I’ll see what I can do. And you?”
“I’ll check by Sector 8’s side and blow a hole open.”
“I see.” He nods back. “Sounds like a working plan. I’ll be waiting for you in Sector 6, then.”
She salutes him too. “Yep. See you soon.”
And with that, Red dutifully leaps off in the direction as planned. Ruby watches him disappear around the corner and then turns away to jump back into the air once more, transforming completely into dragon form in another flash. It seems the pilot of the other helicopter was hesitant to even land while Ruby was present, but finally does so.
While there are normally guards who would be posted before the Sector 8 gate to prevent any stragglers from crossing over to this side, Ruby instead finds the area deserted. Most people of Sector 7 would know not to head this way, but it doesn’t hurt to have more options, especially when it comes to emergency evacuations. Fortunately for her, there don’t seem to be any civilians around either to get caught in the crosshairs.
So, Ruby gets down to business and charges up a much more manageable Flare to blast a hole in said door. The explosion startles security on the other side; many of whom definitely weren’t expecting anyone to even come this way.
“What the hell was that!?”
“Are we under attack?”
“Wait! Look! That’s…!”
The guards on post freak out as soon as they spot an ominously glowing white dragon fly out into the skies from the dust of the explosion. Word has been getting out about the incident at the 7-6 Annex base, after all. The last thing they’d want to do is be caught in something similar.
Ever since the first bombing incident, security has been on high alert in the immediate areas around the former reactor, but the slums themselves, while having been hit by some severe blackouts, were largely untouched and everyone down here remained where they lived. Nevertheless, under some vague pretenses for “safety”, another platoon of Soldier was likewise stationed down here as well. In a way, it were almost like Shinra had been hiding some of their stronger forces here in case they were ever needed to launch a “surprise raid” on Sector 7 in the near future.
All in all, as soon as Ruby enters into Sector 8 by herself, she finds herself being surrounded by an impressive amount of battle-ready Soldiers. However, judging by the color of their uniforms – they’re all 3rd class. Not even a single 2nd or 1st class. How disappointing. Granted, even if they were all 1st class, she would still sweep anyway, but this honestly feels insulting. The Turks are lucky enough to get their own shiny new Monodrive variants, but this side of town is still populated by the same level of threats as usual. She’s well aware that she’s still in the “early game” of this adventure – basically, still stuck on Disc 1 despite being at a level suitable to Discs 2 and 3 – but she could still use some variety or surprise sometimes.
As if to mark the start of the battle, an incoming lightning strike is the first attack to reach her. And in one fluid motion, she catches the bolt in one hand, cups the energy in both hands and molds it into a ball. She expounds on the magic, upgrading it straight to a Thundaga, and lets it fly back at her enemies in a wildly explosive burst. And even before her ball of lightning finishes crackling away, she’s already charged forth into their ranks with claws out.
Once again, she finds herself in a very familiar situation, almost to the point of mundanity. Enemies come to swarm her, but she swats them away not unlike with a flyswatter – but if the flyswatter was also loaded with bladed hooks. She’s getting so damn bored. How about a change of pace sometime, game?
~
High above all the chaos, the president’s office has a good view of the city. Things haven’t quite been happening all according to plan, however. President Shinra is comfortably seated at his desk, but he grows impatient at the lack of updates.
He toys with the remote detonator in his hand, musing to himself over all the power he wields in such a compact device. It isn’t just a big red button on a black box either. There is a small display screen just above the button that shows the number 7 in digital font, and there are a couple switches just below the button, as well as a smaller one on the side. With but a simple flick of a finger, one could potentially switch the number displayed and thus the direction of the remote’s signals. There is a number for every one of the Sectors, in fact – even the remains of Sector 6 in Wall Market have their own pillar – and a self-destruct mechanism built into each one.
The mechanism was there from initial design. They needed a simple way to deconstruct the city in case of “emergencies” or if they ever decided to move cities entirely. After all, the Neo-Midgar Project waits for no one. It also makes a nice convenience for a man who would rather sacrifice many innocent lives to crush any and all resistance from any rebel group that believes they can hide anywhere in this city.
He still hasn’t received a call of confirmation from the Turks or Heidegger. What’s taking them so long? While he has no qualms triggering the remote himself if he must, it’s almost insulting that such a simple operation would required his own action.
He finally gets up from his seat with the remote in hand and steps over to the window to get a better view of the situation – or rather, the ensuing show. He sets his arms behind him and lets off a bored sigh. It should be any minute now… but just in case there were any delays that have yet to be reported, he keeps a finger over the button.
Shink. Before the man can even react, he feels a long sharp blade shoot right through his chest from behind him. It happens so fast that he doesn’t even know how to react. One moment, he was at the height of his power, with a device in hand that could shape the future of this city – nay, the world – as he saw fit. And the next, he drops to the floor in completely numb shock and feels his consciousness quickly fade away. The remote bounces lightly as it hits the floor and lands by the feet of another man.
Sephiroth casually removes his katana from the old man’s body and crouches down to pick up the remote. He gives it a curious examination and then makes an amused smirk. Interesting. While he expected there would be a number of notable changes to the timeline thanks to Ruby’s interference, and a development such as the creation of this device was fairly predictable, it’s still a pleasant surprise that everything would fall right into his hands. It’s almost as if even Destiny itself favored him – well, it’s not like it would have a choice in the matter.
He idly plays with the switches to try out a few things, though it seems the switches up front are correlated to altering frequency and jamming purposes. However, there is one other switch on the side. He gives it a flick, and the number on display then switches from a 7 to an 8. With a conniving smile, he hits the button and then proceeds to crush the entire device in his hand, so it would not be used again.
For a brief moment of silence, he stares out the window toward Sector 8, and then turns off and strolls back down the stairs. He has one more place to be while he’s back at HQ.
~
Ruby sighs miserably. She has returned to her human form and sits atop the Sector 8 gate, facing away from Sector 7, and stares down at the absolute mess that she’s left. So much for her “heroic” act. This looks like the scene of a horror movie where the heroes come out from shelther and everyone else is dead. As the area begins to fill with the faint green glow of souls returning to the planet, she contemplates over questions of morality, and of the significance of life and death. Even though she came in with completely different intentions, she realizes that she’s still taking on the role that Rubia played long ago as a weapon of wanton destruction. And now in this “upgraded” body since her encounter with Jenova, it’s only gotten harder to temper herself. Even a soft jab with her elbow or a slap in the face has the touch of death.
But even in the case that she hadn’t killed them all, she would still have left a whole lot of unconscious bodies around, and no civilian in their right mind would want to come this way anyway. It’s just a lose-lose situation; a terrible lapse in her strategy. Why did she bother to come this way? Was it just to flex her skills on the plebs? Is that it?
Her thoughts are promptly interrupted when she receives a call on walkie-talkie and picks up. “Yo.”
“Ruby, where are you?”
“Hey, Cloud. I’m on the edge between Sectors 7 and 8.”
“You’re… what?”
“I’m literally sitting on the gate between them.”
“What are you even doing there- No, never mind that. What’s the situation? Did you stop the bomb?”
“The main bomb has been neutralized.”
“The ‘main’ bomb?”
“Apparently, it’s not just one. According to the Turks, there’s a secondary set of bombs around the main one that are due to go off in a few minutes.”
“What!?”
“No, no! It’s okay! I can just weld the pillar back together even if it blows. I promise, the upper plate’s not gonna fall.”
There’s a pause for silence on the other end, but Ruby can make out the sounds of someone sighing. Whether or not it’s of relief or disappointment, she can’t tell.
Now Barret speaks up, “Ruby, what about Wedge and the others? Did Marlene make it out yet?”
“Yeah. Marlene’s fine. Wedge and a few others are helping the residents evacuate. I asked Red to join them while I opened up a way into Sector 8 just in case… but uh, I found it’s not that safe here anyway.”
“Ah. Well, good work.”
Ruby shrugs. “Good work” might not be the most accurate phrase to describe what she’s done, but at least she’s done something good.
Then Tifa asks, “Wait. What about Aerith? She was with you guys, right?”
“Uh…” She grimaces as she reports, “She was, but she got caught by the Turks.”
“What!?” Cloud suddenly comes back to yell, “Ruby! How did that even happen? What were you doing!?”
“Stopping the bomb, of course. I single-handedly cleared the whole pillar of enemies.”
“…”
Tifa then asks again, “Then, is Aerith coming over here to Shinra HQ?”
“Yeah. They’re just taking her back to the labs, but given the state that I’ve left it in, who knows where they’ll be putting her.”
“Then, maybe we can run into her later?”
Cloud answers, “Who knows, we’re stuck in here too.”
Ruby quickly catches on. “Oh, right. You said you guys were in the Drum, right? Have you guys found your way out yet?”
“Nope. We managed to take out everything Hojo had for us and found our way to the bottom level. The problem is: the door to the elevator to floor 66 is locked. We can’t go back up either since some of the walkway was destroyed during our battles. Hojo’s not here anymore. We’re out of options.”
“Ah, that sucks. Did you try breaking it open?”
“What do you think we are, you? Just come over and get us out already.”
“Sure, soon as I’m ready to go. I’m still waiting on this big boom and all, so I can fix the pillar-”
She’s interrupted by a sudden explosion nearby. What the? That can’t be the Sector 7 bomb. It’s too soon. Then, this one is… No. Sector 8!?
“What was that? Did the bomb…?” Cloud asks, alarmed.
“No, worse.”
“Worse? What do you mean?”
“Can’t talk. Gotta go.”
“Hey!”
Ruby hangs up, putting it away, and transforms once again to shoot off in the direction of the Sector 8 pillar. Her mind and heart are racing. What the hell is happening right now!? Who would want to blow up Sector 8!? It’s got nothing to do with any of this mess in Sector 7! The Turks were just here, so it’s not them. No, unless… could it have been a spur-of-the-moment executive order? But as cruel and relentless as he is, why would the president do such a thing? It wouldn’t benefit him at all!
She comes to the burning and slowly crumbling pillar and fires a searing white laser at the broken structure to heat up the metal enough that it’ll melt and weld together on its own. Unfortunately, a quick fix like this won’t be able to hold off disaster for long. While the pillar doesn’t completely collapse in on itself, it’s not as strong or as tall as it had been. In fact, the gap is huge, and the massive plate above begins to creak and groan under its own weight. Ruby then flies up to meet it and holds it up with her own claws, and after a brief struggle with balancing the pressure as to not to push it too hard, she manages to help stop the creaking.
But this isn’t a solution. She can’t be stuck here; Sector 7 is still in danger and she’s the only one who can help. But what does she do now? There are still so many people living here in this sector. She can’t evacuate them all right now. While she’s in this form, she can’t access her radio. And though she can try to report to Aerith, her poor cousin has also been captured, so she can’t come to help either.
Goddammit! This is the worst possible outcome that could have arisen. Who the hell was the evil bastard!? Who would be insane enough to turn what could have been a manageable hassle into a catastrophe!? Only the most sadistic of minds could have possibly done this…
And that’s when it hits her. Oh, of course. She knows of a certain very sadistic mind, and sure enough, he would dare to put her in such a situation. As soon as the revelation had come to her, though, she feels oddly calm. Not a single F-bomb ready to fire. Rather, she’s simply in shock and awe over everything that led up to this moment. After all that has happened since the beginning, just when things were looking up and Ruby was about to complete yet another victory lap around Shinra and Midgar; it was about time that she would come to face an actual challenge. She almost forgot about it in all the chaos she’d been stirring up for these past few days, but she is still participating in a certain “game” for the fate of the planet.
And finally, Sephiroth has made his move, just like she was hoping. In fact, one could even say that this move has put her side of the chessboard in a check.
Now she feels ashamed too. It’s not just about “knowing better” or that she should have been “more careful”. It genuinely feels like she’s at least partly responsible for tempting fate, and now that the karma behind her arrogance has come to catch up with her, she has nothing to say to defend herself.
But there’s no time to be moping around in defeat. Sector 7 still needs her. Besides, she may have been checked, but it’s not checkmate. Sadly, she has no choice but to make a difficult castling move; to sacrifice one sector for another and for her own sake.
In the distance, she likewise hears the boom that she had been awaiting. Time’s up. As she releases her hold on the upper plate, it returns to creaking and groaning as if in agony. She makes a solemn bow to the undercity beneath her that is in absolute chaos and panic. Unfortunately, this is just how things have turned out.
Goodbye, Sector 8.