Chapter Nineteen
The Midgar train didn't require a ticket. It was a show of Shinra's goodwill that anyone with a valid Identification Paper could climb aboard and go do his business anywhere else in the other sectors. The train made an ascending spiral around the main supporting pillar upon which Shinra's Headquarters were located, and at regular intervals flashes of light passed through the carriages, the scanners checking our papers.
Jessie's paper worked, true to the woman's skills. Thus, as I neatly descended from the train to gaze at the beautiful Midgar sky with streaks of smoke coming from the Mako Reactors, I looked around. The station above-plate was a wonder, and there was more than one train as it turned out. While the train I had taken went 'all around' there were trains that went to the far edges of the plate, and others who instead went for the outskirts of it.
Shinra's Military Police patrolled the area, their crimson visors moving through the crowd, their machineguns clutched tightly in their arms. The people around were definitely better dressed, and far less armed. Near the station, a few limb-lacking men stood by asking for Gil, but I ignored them as I made my way past the station's outskirts, and into the main street proper.
I had ditched the armor, since it wouldn't help me in what I planned to do. The Materia's shine would have been difficult to hide, but the thick leather of the impromptu jacket -once you removed the metal plates, it was nothing more than a leather jacket- helped in hiding the glow. I didn't have thick enough gloves to hide the gauntlets, but I had stashed them in the inner pockets of my jacket and hopefully, I'd manage all of this without having to go for them even once.
'Hopefully' was a lofty term.
Although, honestly, if all it took to enter Shinra's Headquarters was to walk up the front door in civilian attire, I wonder why Barret and co didn't do it to begin with.
Oh, right, they had no way of getting on the upper floors without being swarmed by SOLDIER and Shinra's Military Police. The receptionist by the counter smiled at me as I stepped inside, and I returned the smile.
"Good morning," I said. "Is Mister Tseng available?" I asked.
The secretary faltered only briefly, but then checked on her computer for a number and tapped it on her phone. After a short ring, the woman spoke in the phone, "Sir? There's a gentleman here to see you-"
I looked around for a camera, or what passed off for a camera, and then returned my attention to the secretary in question.
"Oh, do tell him my name is Dlev," I said, with my arms propped on the counter. "We have a friend in common and he told me to come over here to talk business with good old Tseng."
The secretary blinked, but then sharply nodded as her back stiffened from whatever Tseng was telling her through the phone. He must have heard, because how could he not? The next moment, the woman closed the phone and handed me over a badge with the words 'High Clearance' written on it. "Mister Tseng is waiting for you on floor forty-six," she said with a strained smile. She also pushed a button, and gestured with the side of her head to the nearby metal detectors.
Oh. Thank you Tseng for so politely deactivating the metal detectors I had completely forgotten about. Well, this was going better than I expected. As I stepped past the metal detectors, which didn't ring although I was definitely carrying the metallic straps of the gauntlets, or perhaps they were materia detectors and I had just avoided making the whole place sound up in alarm, I walked up the stairs on my way to the elevator, pushing a button to call it to my floor.
I hummed lightly as I watched a nearby Military Police soldier give me a glance. I smiled back, nodding my head. "Keep up the good work," I said with a wink as the door opened up, allowing me entrance as a few other employees instead filtered outside. I pushed the button for the intended floor, and as I showed the passcard to the nearby screen, the red ring around the number that I had pushed turned briefly green, and the doors closed with a hiss.
Thus, it was on floor forty-six that the doors opened to a sour-looking Tseng. I smiled, and he didn't. His raven shoulder-length hair and the tiny dot on his forehead were his defining features, that and the sour expression on his face.
"You should date a bit, might ease the tension," I said as I calmly walked out of the elevator. Nervous-talk? Nervous talk. As long as I remembered what I could say and what I couldn't say, then everything would go swimmingly well. My palms were sweating, but since I had them clenched, he couldn't realize that.
The corridors around us were lit with pale light, which reflected the majority of the dark blue colored furniture and clothes. Everything in the floor seemed to scream 'Turk', from the smell of weapon oils to the perfume that reeked of high quality.
"After you," Tseng said curtly, extending an arm to show me a direction, his other limp near his side -definitely near his gun, without a doubt.
"Come on now," I said offhandedly as I began to walk in front of him. "We are Turks. We complete the mission. No matter the cost," I said with a dry wit. "Your's a bit long in the making, but hey, I'd have thought it would make it easier for you if I showed up with a bright blue jacket."
"Amusing," Tseng said. "You wouldn't be fit for the Turks even in a hundred years," he dryly added.
"Touché, touché," I shrugged lightly. "Which is why I'm perfect, ain't I?" I pushed my glasses up the bridge of my nose. "I mean, I even bothered getting closer to Miss Gainsborough," I said in a murmur, "And we both know just how important she is as the last of the Cetra, don't we?"
"Your knowledge either lends you credibility, or is simply further proof of Heidegger's incapacity in hiding information," Tseng said flatly, "Stop." He pushed a button by a nearby door, and as it opened to reveal quite a large office, he inclined his head to gesture me inside.
As I stepped through the doorway, I saw a refined wooden desk with a computer hanging by one side of it, a large window that gave onto the city of Midgar, and more than a few shelves filled with documents. On a nearby desk, half a dozen of alcoholic bottles stood closed, sealed and never opened.
The door hissed to a close behind me as Tseng pushed me lightly with the tip of his gun towards the chair in front of his desk, and as he now made no show of hiding his gun, he propped his wrist on the desk's surface and took a seat opposite of me. "Start from the beginning," Tseng said.
"In the beginning," I remarked, "There was a mad scientist by the name of Fuhito who experimented on Veld's daughter, by the name of Efe, to summon Zirconiade and cause the Turks to fight it. He wanted the complete eradication of human life for the sake of the planet, and the Turks in a battle of valor destroyed the monster, before heading into exile where they, in the end, had to return from to face the Jade Weapon. Then they went back to their lives of exile," I pointed out. "Though it seems a certain someone took out 'hit assassinations' on them, he made a poor job since they all walked out of those alive and unharmed, and with new identities-Elena's sister is doing fine by the way," I winked.
Tseng blinked, but remained unfazed. "Now, up to me not meeting your standards for a Turk? Because that's part of the point. You know, you can't infiltrate a terrorist organization if you look like you belong to the Turks. Ever tried that? They don't even let you in through the back door, sheesh." I shrugged. "But you know that, didn't you? Your pretty act of chivalry with Miss Gainsborough when she entered that den in Sector Seven." I grinned slightly. "You even had someone beat me a bit, I'm touched for your concern on the miss. What were you, afraid I'd hurt her precious feelings?"
There it was. A tiny twitch on Tseng's lips, which was followed by a creasing of his forehead, if slightly. "Don't worry though, I'm not here for that. I'm here because the Boss, or Ex-Boss," I amended, "Caught the signs of something bad, something really bad," I sighed. "Something so, so, so bad he had to send someone to warn you. Someone who could waltz in the Shinra Headquarters without triggering alarms, or facial recognition software, or...pretty much everything else," I gave him a tiny wave and a mock bow. "So here I am, Turk Shade, at your service. My specialty? Infiltration."
Tseng didn't answer at first, but in the end, he did place the gun by his side and clasped both hands together. "What is it that requires him to break his exile so much? Even when looking for him, I never managed to find out where he had gone into hiding," he looked at me as if expecting me to answer that question, but I shook my head.
"No fishing for information from me, New Boss," I raised both hands in mock defeat, "I'm sealed tighter than a Mako Reactor," I chuckled lightly. "There's been...movement. Something's going on that's sending the monsters in North Crater in a frenzy, and wouldn't you know it, there's only one thing in North Crater that could make that happen," I looked at him, but Tseng didn't answer. He didn't have a clue, did he?
"Sephiroth's corpse," I said flatly. "The SOLDIER par excellence," I grimaced, "Is right there, sending all of the nearby monsters in frenzies and expanding his range as he does that. I know, I know, it sounds crazy, and trust me, if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes I wouldn't have believed it," I began to thump my right foot on the ground rhythmically, my hands clasped together even tighter. "That place...brrr, it gives you the chills man."
"So?" Tseng asked, not seeing the point.
"Right, right, you wouldn't know," I acquiesced, "You do know SOLDIER's process requires their infusion in Mako energy and the injection of Jenova cells inside the bodies of strong men, right? Course you do," I smiled. "Problem is, Sephiroth's capable of exercising control over those cells, and he's the one pulling the strings. Yep, it's as bad as it sounds. Right now, running around these Headquarters, there are potential traitors going about their own business, but if Sephiroth's range extends past a certain threshold, if he grows more powerful, then it's over-he'll overrun this place in a moment and recover Jenova, which Hojo has tightly packed away in his own floor, and then proceed to destroy all of Shinra, and mankind...because he's like that, I guess."
"And how did you manage across this information?" Tseng asked flatly. "How was this 'influence' determined?"
"Well, what a silly question, Tseng," I replied with a scoff. "The body of Lucrecia, the actual mother of Sephiroth, was never found after all. Never thought of why? I could tell you where she is, but once again, sorry, my lips are sealed. And it's all scientific mumbo-jumbo I never got the hang of," I shrugged. "I'm good at getting in, getting out, and doing all of it without being found." I blinked. "That even rhymed!"
I smiled warmly, "I'm the friend you never even knew you had until today, and suddenly, I'm your best friend."
Tseng's lips curled slightly. "I'll need proof," he said in the end.
"My words aren't proof enough?" I replied.
"They're enough of a proof that I'm willing to consider you as a member of the Turks. They aren't enough of a proof that what you're saying about Sephiroth is true," Tseng pointed out. "I can't issue you a Turk membership, or Heidegger will question how you were hired. He only accepted Elena because she was pretty." Here Tseng's fists clenched tightly in seething disgust. "The man's going to be the ruin of us all."
"That said, I'm not just here to give you pretty skivvy information," I replied softly. "I need you to evacuate the area around Sector One's Reactor at my signal," I chuckled lightly. "Something big is going to happen there soon, and I'd rather not have civilian casualties if I can avoid them."
"That is something I cannot do," Tseng said. "Also, I'd rather you told me what is going to happen-"
"Tseng," I said flatly, "I have a mission to complete," I looked at him straight in the eyes, "And I will complete it, because I am a Turk, and to me...it's only business. I can complete it with or without your help, with or without civilian casualties, and with or without drenching the streets of Midgar in blood. I told you what I was told to reveal you. I won't tell you what I must not tell you." I sighed. "If it can console you, I know half of what the boss wants me to do half of the time, was he that tough with you too?"
Tseng took a deep breath, and then closed his eyes for a brief moment. "I'll trust Veld's judgment on this," he said in a whisper, before pulling out from his pocket his cellphone and sliding it over the table in my direction.
"I'll get a new number," Tseng said. "Send a message to the name 'Rude' in the contacts, he'll relate it to me."
I nodded. "Worry not," I gave him a quick military salute, "I'll do that." I then stretched as I stood up, "Oh, just so you know, next time I meet Reno I'm going to punch him in the face for ruining my jacket. The man could use a bit more of discipline," and with a wave of the hand, I stepped out of the door and whistled as I reached for the elevator. I did not allow my legs to tremble or give out from the relief at having made this work.
My expression remained wistfully happy as I descended to the nearly last floor, and then stepped outside through the emergency stairs by taking the last flight of stairs and emerging into the side alley of Shinra's headquarters.
With the high-clearance pass still in my pockets, I whistled and made my way back to the train station.
Well, this had been so honestly easy it made me kind of worried something was just about to go wrong.
It felt as if somebody called my name as I took the steps off the train platform and on the train itself, and thus I stopped and turned around for a brief moment, furrowing my brows. "Bah," I shrugged. "Must have been an hallucination."
I then took a seat and quietly pulled out from my inner pockets the Materia gauntlets, strapping them back on to my feet and legs as the train went by peacefully, thrumming along the way.
As I stood there in wait, a shadow crept over my face.
I looked up, and then my eyes widened in disbelief.
Jenova was in the train compartment.
Her deformed, fleshy bits twitched and moved in an obscene way that seemed akin to that of 'The Thing', mixed with the deformed limbs of only the worst that Silent Hill could offer. Her form exuded a sort of hypnotizing wave-like motion which, at the same time, made me inwardly recoil and scream at the top of my lungs inside the back of my head at just how horrifying such a creature could actually be.
Jenova was-
There was a flash of light, probably due to the swapping from real sunlight to the artificial light of below the plate, and the figure was gone. I bounced off my feet and emitted a small yelp, staring at the empty space as the other train passengers didn't give me more than a sparse glance before returning to their usual 'ignore everything around them' attitude. My heart, meanwhile, was beating in my chest.
I looked around, seemingly at a loss for words. I could chalk this up to an hallucination of sorts. The built stress of having lied to the face of Tseng, having risked it all on a gamble that could work only because I had information that nobody else would ever obtain -if not by knowing facts by having been there, or having been told by someone who was there- and yet, in all of this, I still had managed to come out on top.
But the hallucination...
Maybe it was just that. Maybe my 'Mako Resistance' had reached its limits in this way, and I was now hallucinating about Jenova of all things. That creepy alien had been the number one source of my nightmares since her appearance in the game proper after all, and she had been in Shinra's headquarters, just a few floors above Tseng's office.
Maybe it was the growing stress of having been torn away from home. Maybe it was the stress of belonging to a terrorist organization. Maybe it was the nervousness at risking my life if Barret or the others discovered I had talked with Tseng. Whatever the reason, I had hallucinated.
And that was it.
This couldn't be part of a bigger picture. It had just been an hallucination. A horrible, definitely disgusting to watch at first glance, hallucination.
Jenova was still trapped.
Until Sephiroth gave the trigger the night of Cloud's capture, Jenova would stay there in Hojo's lab, safely confined.
Yes. It would be that.
It had to be that.
Then, if that was the case, why were my teeth chattering and my legs trembling?
