The Ruins of Midgar: Sector 7\
Daisy parked just outside of the
Midgar. The ruins towered over them,
twisted spires of steel rising and shining in the twilight. The glow of the sunset casted everything in
gold. Here, the smell of wet stone and rusted
steel permeated everything. It was
better than the smoke, or at least Yuffie thought so.
She took a
moment to collect herself before checking her map. The files Shelke gave her had everything she
needed and pointed to the Shinra HQ building, the ruins of which rested high on
the upper plate. Daisy waited
impatiently beside her, checking her guns to pass the time.
“So, what
exactly are we looking for,” Daisy asked after a prolonged silence. Usually, she was understanding to Yuffie’s
motion-sickness, but the attack on the Lodge have left her anxious. When no answer came, she glared over the car
at Yuffie. Yuffie!”
“Sorry,
sorry.” Yuffie held her stomach and
regarded the map pulled up on her bracer again.
“Honestly, I’m not sure. Shelke
did her best with the information, but all I really got from it was that the
Lotus would be looking for something here.”
“And what
is it they are looking for?”
Yuffie
lifted her bracer and pointed at a glowing green dot a good distance away from
them. “A secret materia lab, probably
filled with all sorts of experimental materia, just like what the Emerald Lotus
would be looking for.”
Daisy took
a deep breath and holstered her pistol.
“Okay, that’s better. Where is
this lab?”
“Beneath
Shinra HQ, deep beneath. Deeper than
Deepground.”
“Great. And do those files tell us how to get there?”
“No, but I
know how,” Yuffie said, grinning. She
closed the map and pulled a jacket from the passenger seat. After slipping it on, she led them into the
ruins. Daisy followed shortly after,
hugging herself for comfort.
“This is my
first time coming to Midgar, you know.”
“Really?”
“Really. I grew up on an entirely different continent,
and when I was a girl, I used to dream of joining AVALANCHE.” They walked in silence. Collapsed stone pillar had fused together
through impact to form a canopy above them.
The sunlight peeks in through the cracks. “What about you, Yuffie? Do you have any dreams from when you were a
kid?”
Long ago,
on a mountain overlooking Wutai, Yuffie made a promise. Actually, it was more a childish
proclamation. Shinra had won the war
with materia, so she would take their materia and win Wutai back. After everything that had happened since
then, it felt like a lifetime ago.
“Most of
the files Shelke gave me were corrupted.
Those that aren’t, are way above our paygrade, so I didn’t have the
clearance to get them open, but we know one thing about them—Reed could get
them open. That means that they’re
related to materia somehow.”
“Oh. I wonder why the Emerald Lotus is looking for
materia. What they’re doing, it goes
beyond simple smuggling or traditional materia abuses.”
“Exactly,
but if they’re seeking experimental materia, we know one thing. Whatever they’re looking for, it can’t be
good.”
The Ruins of Midgar: The Sector 6 Slums\
Sector six
survived the battle of Midgar but only just.
When the Sister Ray fired, the recoil shook the entire plate. Debris littered the ruins like little
meteorites dropped from the heavens.
Buildings were collapsed from the reverberations, landmark-memories of
the catastrophe visited here.
Residents
of the slums mostly relocated to Edge.
Some even managed to turn their lives around. They found purpose in the hard work required
to build the city and, in the effort, were able to rebuild themselves. Those who lived on the plate relocated
entirely, finding home in other cities before their money would mean nothing.
Those that
remained after meteor fall did not let themselves be known. They stuck to the shadows and lived a quiet,
isolated existence. Some were former
soldiers without a war to fight. Some
were Shinra supporters too afraid to meet the public head-on. Yuffie and Daisy knew they were there,
watching, but they saw no one on the empty streets.
The ruins
stank of old fumes and decay. They
climbed a fallen beam and stared across the flattened streets and broken
buildings. It was Yuffie’s first time in
Sector Six, but she had an idea of where she was going. The map on her bracer also helped to keep her
on track. She pulled it up and checked
their position, and then she pointed ahead.
“Over there.”
Daisy wiped
her brow. Though she was healthy, she
was also fresh from the hospital. Her
body was still adjusting to the hike.
She straightened her jacket and tightened her ponytail. “There?
What’s there?”
Yuffie
hopped from her perch and carefully descended the mountain of debris. Then, she made a swift approach into what was
once the famously the Wall Market of Sector Six. Daisy trailed shortly after. She took in the collapsed stalls with mild
disgust.
“Really,
what are we looking for here that will help us get up to Shinra?”
Yuffie
checked her map again and then took a left on a forked path. “How much do you know about the Wall Market,
Daisy? More importantly, do you know WHY
it was called the Wall Market?”
“Because of
the market?”
“Because of
the wall,” Yuffie said. She took a right
and came to a stop before a solid expanse of steel and stone that towered
still. It was covered in graffiti of all
sorts, some works of art, some drunken declarations of love and loyalty. Yuffie put her hands on her hips and took it
in. “Tifa told me that when Aerith was taken by Shinra, she and the others
climbed up to the plate from here. She
also said Barret used some weird metaphor, calling some piece of wire a…Golden
rope of truth? Or hope? Anyway.” She grinned at Daisy. “It’s our way in.”
“A wire,”
Daisy said, staring at the wall and at the wreckage above it. She gulped.
“And it goes all the way up?”
“Yup.” Yuffie approached the wall and squinted. She thought she could see something in the
dark. “It’s the easiest way up.”
“No, it’s
really not,” Daisy said. She tried to
rub a smear of dirt from her jacket cuff.
“Listen, there are tunnels, elevators.”
“And you
think those would be easier to climb?”
Yuffie felt for the wire in the shadows.
“There’s no power left here, Daze.
Besides, all of the tunnels are collapsed or under W.R.O. watch.” Her fingers found something and seized
it. She gave a firm tug and it
held. “This really is the easiest way.”
Daisy
watched Yuffie plant one foot against the wall and start her climb, and she
frowned. “Seriously? You really don’t expect me to believe that
they snuck into Shinra HQ by climbing a cord that went all the way up to the
surface.”
“If it’s so
hard to believe, then climb up and see for yourself,” Yuffie said.
Daisy
coiled the cord around her hand and started her climb. She stared at the wall as she hauled herself
up and followed a long, winding crack with her eyes. It disappeared into the darkness, lost amidst
graffiti and shadows. Above her, Yuffie
shook the wire as she made her slow progress.
From where Daisy was, the wall looked endless. The remains of the upper plate seemed
impossible to reach.
They hugged
the cord tight as they shimmied along slowly.
When they finally crested the wall, they saw the Midgar ruins extending
out around them. There was nothing but
ruin and wreckage all blurred into the darkness. From the center, the Shinra HQ building rose
from the rubble, still standing despite the horrors visited upon it. A meteor couldn’t fell it, nor could the
warfare that followed.
The cord
held, to the surprise of both women.
Even at its thinnest, it did not snap.
The longer she held onto it, the safer Yuffie felt. She couldn’t imagine power ran through it
either and that only brought her deeper comfort.
They passed
the wall and left it behind, shimmying determinedly through sore arms and sore
thighs. They found respite on a
fractured girder at the top and sat at its center, legs dangling between the
bars. Daisy sat on the right, her back
rested against its crooked frame. It
would lead them the rest of the way up, Yuffie remembered from the stories.
The night
was bleak and lifeless. There was no
moon, just inky shadows and cold silence.
Yuffie couldn’t see the stars above, but she could see fire pits
below. It reminded her that not everyone
left the ruins. The remnants survived,
as they always do, and that night they glittered in the darkness.
Daisy wiped
her brow and hugged her jacket to her body.
She stared out into the night, panting softly. “It’s weird to think, this used to be a
city.”
Yuffie
nodded. “Biggest in the world.”
“And now
it’s,” Daisy frowned, “This.”
Yuffie
nodded again and lifted one leg. She
hugged it and stared into the darkness.
From where she sat, she could see it, a tiny white steeple with a hole
in its roof. For a long time, it was
considered a wreck. Now, it is the lone
survivor. Yuffie pointed at it. “See that?”
Daisy
squinted. “The church?”
“Yeah. I’m not sure, but I think that’s Aerith’s
church.” Yuffie looked at the frayed
ribbon tied around her right arm. “She
was an old friend of mine. Of…ours, and
she, uh, she died. Fighting Serphiroth.”
“Oh.”
“Anyway,
she used to grow flowers in there, way back in the day.” Yuffie smiled and kicked her foot. “And flowers still grow there, without anyone
watching, even after everything that’s happened. I like to think that’s how life is. You see all the destruction, all of the
damage Shinra did, to the people, to the world, and it can be hard to remember
that life keeps on going like nothing ever happened.”
“Wow.” Daisy chuckled under her breath and stared at
Yuffie. “That didn’t sound like you at
all.”
Yuffie
stretched. “Yeah, I must be getting
tired.” She stared up the broken ladder
that would lead them to the plate, and she sighed. It disappeared in the night, but if she
stared close enough, Yuffie could see stars between the cracks. “Still have a long way to go.”
“Yeah.” Daisy stared up at the plate, too, and then
pulled herself to standing. She was
careful not to mind her footing. “But
we’ll make it.”
Yuffie
pushed up and dusted the rust from her shorts.
“Of course.”
“Think
they’ll be there?”
“Who?”
“You know.”
“Oliver and
them?”
“Yes.” Daisy stared fixedly at the plate now. Her features were sharp in the darkness, as
was her tone.
“I don’t
know. Maybe.” Yuffie shrugged. “What will you do if he is?”
Daisy
didn’t speak, but Yuffie could see the words written on her face. It was more than anger, even more than
hurt. It was disappointment and broken
trust.
Yuffie
stepped forward and grabbed at the rusting steel. The outer layer of it turned to flakes in her
palms. She tested their strength before
she started climbing. Daisy was shortly
behind her. “You know,” she said,
staring above and wincing whenever the steel turned to dust, “With Reed at
least, I always knew he was bad.”
Daisy
groaned. “No, you didn’t.”
“No, I
did. Really. I mean, granted, okay, maybe I didn’t KNOW he
was part of the Emerald Lotus. But, I
knew I was going to kick his ass one day.”
“Please. You just didn’t like him because he didn’t
like you.”
“Nah, it
was more than that. He was faking from
the start, and he was never a very good actor.
He didn’t care enough about people to want to protect them from
anything.”
Daisy
hummed. “I guess that’s true.” She pulled herself up steadily in Yuffie’s
wake. “You know, sometimes it’s hard to
remember that you used to do spy work for the W.R.O.”
Yuffie
grinned down at her. “Yup, I’m a
veteran. Been there from the start.”
“Feeling
old yet?”
“Not on
your life, but I still wouldn’t mind putting all this Lotus crap into an
unmarked grave. Irks me that they’re
using Wutai like this.”
“Using
Wutai?”
“Their
name. The Emerald Lotus is a Wutai
flower. In the old days, before my dad
or even my dad’s dad, people used it as a sort of medicine and for ceremonies
and stuff. And now they’re using it, its
image, and its name. Just another bunch
of jerks trying to destroy my homeland.”
“Huh. Maybe they think of themselves as the cure.”
“Sure.” Yuffie looked down and felt the world
spin. She remembered the assault on
Shinra HQ, the stale air feeling fresh against her face when she left the
airship, and the uncomfortable buoyancy of the parachute. It was all a distant memory, but staring down
at the ruins, it all came back. “I’m
sure Shinra thought the same thing.”
“You really
think?”
“Nah. Maybe in the beginning or something. They thought they were bringing people
civilization, using Mako energy back before anyone knew what it was. I mean, it was like that when I was a
kid. I used to think materia was the
power of the gods, that if I just got enough, I could save Wutai.
“And there
were people in Wutai who wanted them there, who wanted civilization. They saw their weapons, saw their magic, and
they wanted that. That’s the thing about
people with a cause. You think you’re so
right that you can’t do anything wrong, and you don’t even think about the
people you step on to get there.”
“I guess
so.”
Yuffie
crested the girder and hopped from the tip to another series of wires. “And, uh, that was a close one. Cloud and those guys, they weren’t fighting
for a cause, you know. They were
fighting for people. Ideas, they’re not
people. They don’t have feelings or
anything. You focus so much on them, you
forget what the important thing is.
People can die, and it seems to me that no one is fighting for them a
lot of the time.” She paused and met
Daisy’s eyes. “That’s what I think, anyway. Now, come on, we’ve still got a ways to go.”
The Ruins of Midgar: Shinra HQ\
A few hours
pass and finally, after one last break, the duo reach the top of the
plate. Yuffie pulled herself up and
rolled onto her back to stare up at the starry sky, and she had to laugh. Though the city was in ruin, the skyline has
never looked better. Years ago, as they
approached in their helicopter, Yuffie was struck by how dark the sky was—a
product of the light pollution, among other forms of pollution. Now, she could see each star clearly.
Daisy came
to rest beside her, sitting on her knees and panting. “That—was—quite—the—climb.”
“Yeah.” Yuffie sat up and wiped sweat from her brow,
but she kept smiling. She turned to
regard Shirna HQ, which towered before them, derelict but standing. “And now we’re here.”
They took
in the HQ. Despite years of neglect,
despite the many battles fought there, the assault of the Diamond Weapon, the
duel between Cloud and Sephiroth, the war with Deepground and Rosso the Crimson’s
death, it stood. Yuffie hated to admit
it, but when Shinra did something, they did it well.
She stood
and dusted herself off. “Come on. No time to catch our breath. If we can trust Shelke’s information, then
the Emerald Lotus is already here, and the W.R.O. won’t be far behind.”
Daisy took
a deep breath and stood beside her. Once
more, she adjusted her jacket’s cuffs.
“Alright. Then, where to?”
Yuffie
pulled up the map on her bracer. “We’ll
want to reach the top floor.” She tapped
the holographic interface and moved through the map, analyzing the different
halls and stairs and seeking whatever hidden paths the W.R.O. may have already
found. “A while back the W.R.O. found an
elevator there and, surprise, surprise, Shinra was keeping even more
secrets. Anyway, from what the records
say, it was a materia lab, but the W.R.O. shut it down.”
“And the
Emerald Lotus think there might be something there.”
“Exactly. Which means that’s where we’ll find them.”
“So, how do
we get there?”
Yuffie chewed
her bottom lip. “Well, the main elevator
will be busted, which means we’ll have to use the stairs. Usually, that would mean key cards, but I
doubt there’s any power left in the locks up there. So, we’ll start in the lobby and work our way
up.”
Daisy took
another deep breath as she considered the trek before her. She put her hands on her hips, sighed. “Sounds good, I guess.”
Yuffie
laughed and nudged her. “Come on, it
won’t be so bad. Though, we’ll want to
keep our weapons handy. Shinra liked to
let their experiments run loose around here.
Last time we were here there were reports of biological weapons roaming
the place.” Yuffie closed the maps and
drew her shuriken. “Which, of course, we
didn’t come and take care of.”
“With no
one living out here they probably didn’t see the point.”
“Still.” They exchanged glances. “I think we could do them a favor and kill a
few.”
Daisy drew
her guns and flipped their safety. “The
things we do for work.”
“Just
imagine they’re Oliver’s smug little face.”
“Done.”
They enter
the building and found it in disarray but not entirely in disrepair. The walls were surprisingly well-preserved,
the windows smudged but enduring. A
front desk wound around a central pillar with two large staircases leading up
to the next floor, where elevators could take them higher. Paneled lights hung from the ceiling.
Despite the
dust and darkness, the room was largely undamaged. Even with the rubble lying around the
entrance of the building, this room seemed almost entirely untouched, save for
footprints in along the floor. They
looked animal in nature, padded paw-prints of an unknown origin. Yuffie made note of them and moved forward.
They
followed a nearby map to the fire-exit, where they started the long climb
upward. Unlike the main building, the
stairwell was showing its age. The
concrete was eroding slowly and much of the railing was altogether
missing. There were a few places where
they had to hop from stair to stair to make it higher. Yuffie did it with a smile. Daisy followed reluctantly.
The higher
they we, the more damage they found. On
the way Yuffie found grappling hooks and ropes left by who she assumed to be
Lotus soldiers. They were left recently,
much more recently than the last W.R.O. excursion to the area. There were also footprints, scuff marks, and
open doors. They were searching methodically.
They moved
farther up and found webbing. Some of it
had been cut through already and moved in the breeze. What was left was thick, viscous, and
pervasive. It was strung across nearly
every wall. They found a body hanging in
one particularly voluminous clump in a darkened corner. They wore a green uniform that had been torn
open across the front. Blood beaded
along the silk.
Yuffie and
Daisy shared a grimace and moved on.
The farther
they went, the more bodies they found.
Most were suspended in the air by a liberal amount of webbing. Some were torn limb-from-limb and partially
eaten. Often times, their weapons were
found nearby, held in place by the webbing as if frozen in time. The smell of blood permeated the stairwell.
Yuffie
covered her nose and kicked one of the soldiers. They didn’t move. “Looks like we’re on the right track.” She glanced back at Daisy. “Maybe we shouldn’t even be here. Seems like the monsters are cleaning up just
fine.”
Daisy
frowned at the idea.
“Anyway,
let’s keep going.”
They took a
step forward, and then Daisy yanked them back.
Webbing surged from the shadows and spread across the Lotus corpse nearby. As they fell backward, Daisy grabbed hold of
the railing and drew her pistol. The
steel railing twisted and gave, and she fell backward, being caught by Yuffie,
who had rolled to a stop just before tumbling over the edge of stairwell.
A creature
stood suspended in the webbing above them.
It was enormous, with eight furry legs and a growth protruding from its
abdomen. Its upper torso was that of a
wolf, with a canine snout. Its lips were
curled back in a snarl, its eyes a snowy white.
“Yuffie,
what is that?”
“Whatever
it is, it’s making its home here.”
The
creature twisted and turned. Its abdomen
flexed and webbing rushed forth. Yuffie
shoved Daisy forward and took the webbing to the torso. The blow was enough to knock the air from
her. She fell backward and then hung, body wrapped in a thick blanket of fine,
viscous fibers. She cursed and swayed,
staring at the darkness below.
“Crap! Daisy, it got me! I’m stuck.”
“I’ve got
it,” Daisy said, and she lifted herself and looked up. The creature was gone now, lost in the
shadows. She tried to stand but couldn’t
move her ankle. Her left foot was taped
to the floor by thick webbing. It was
her turn to curse. “It got me, too,
Yuffie, and now it’s disappeared. You
see it?”
Yuffie
frowned and swayed. “No! I can’t see anything.”
“Well—Wait!” Daisy rolled to one side and fired up into
the darkness, where she thought the creature may be crouching. A screech followed in the wake of the gunfire
and blood spread across the webbing. The
creature fell from the ceiling, landing on all eight legs and lunging forward
at her, fangs bared and gleaming.
Daisy
pressed firmly against the wall and fired twice. It took two bullets to the chest and fell
back into the railing, which gave under its weight. The stone beneath it shifted and
fractured. Its legs scrambled and seized
at the floor and when that wasn’t enough, it leapt from the stonework to the
webbing across the way.
“Daisy? Daisy, what’s going on? What are you doing up there? Did you get it?”
“Shut up.”
“What?”
“Shut up!”
“Oh.”
Daisy
followed the creature’s crawl up. She
aimed her weapon and rolled onto her back, her ankle twisting at an odd angle
to accommodate her position. Then, she
pulled the trigger once, twice, three times.
She heard a screech and then watched its descent down the stairwell. Silence followed.
“Looks like
you got it,” Yuffie said as she continued to sway. She heard it land far below.
Daisy took
a deep breath. “Looks like.” She looked down at the webbing on her
feet. “Now to figure out how to get out
of this.”
“I think
I’ve got it.” Yuffie wriggled and flexed
her hand. She managed to touch her
shuriken briefly and closed her eyes. A
small flame spread across her torso and parted the web’s fibers. She nearly fell but caught herself on the
very edge of the stairs and pulled herself up.
Then, she held the materia in hand and glanced at Daisy. “Close your eyes. And don’t move. I don’t want to take your foot.”
Daisy
swallowed and winced. She felt a flash
of heat and could see the light through her closed eyelids. Then, her foot was free. When she opened her eyes, she found a small
amount of webbing still there, crusted to her sock. She flexed her ankle before standing and then
regarded the Lotus corpses. “Well, now
we at least know what got them.”
Yuffie
nodded. “And we got it.”
“There may
be more, though. So, guards up.”
“Let’s hope
there’s more. More of those means less
of the Lotus.”
Daisy
sighed. “I think I’d prefer the Lotus.”
Yuffie
checked her map and nodded. “Well, we’re
getting close. Come on.”
