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Ruien froze as he heard it, he had no idea how it had been humanly possible for anyone to sneak up on him, especially since the battle had been raging his senses had been heightened by the adrenaline rush he was still feeling abate. He could feel the barrel of the gun close to his head, far too close to be able to react even the second the shot was fired, he stood in tense silence simply waiting for the fatal shot to be fired, yet the gunman did not take his chance, he spoke. Ruien recognised the voice instantly, it was the very store clerk that had sent him here in the first place, Ruien listened in confusion wonder what the hell this guy meant, he could not have possibly meant. He began to wonder if this man meant the otherworldly version of himself, Ruien slowly opened his mouth to speak when the shot was fired. He fell to his uninjured knee and then face-first into the ground.
"What. The. Hell!?" Were the only words he was able to gasp, the wound was bleeding freely, confusion set in, normally Ruien would have healed such an insignificant wound by now, yet for some reason, that was not happening, his knee simply continued to bleed. By the time he felt himself being rolled over onto his back, he had no strength left to do anything, his vision began to cloud and then rapidly swim in and then out of focus, one thing he did know was that the gun was once again pointing at his head. He felt rage slowly begin to well up within him. That, however, was quelled by his rapidly fading consciousness. He flinched as the shot was fired and thrown stray by an explosion, his head was missed by inches. He began to lose himself, his eyes closed, then opened, just in time to see the man running away.
"I.... Remember.... Your face..... I.... WILL.... Get you." He struggled to so much as mumble as his hearing was lost to a high pitched ringing noise and his eyes closed. He was lost to everything at that point, nothing but a wall of cold silence and a well of darkness awaited him now.
"This is the second time I've had you like this..."
"By some... Act of God... Or the Devil... You made it out alive..."
"What do you mean? This is the first time I've-"
"Yes, you'll do just fine!" He saw himself, holding that katana-esque form, giving away the fact that the weapon was indeed the DeathWish. He was stood face-to-face with. That very same man, the 'Store clerk'.
"A fine prize for the Emperor!" A small skirmish took place, and despite having Ruien at his full attention this man some how overcame adverse odds and not only managed to land what looked like a killing blow, he also managed to flee the violently shaking. Ruien was not sure where exactly they were. An airship took off as the skirmish had started, in which he saw a young man looking out of its window, clearly upset. The image faded and once more he observed himself, this time sat atop one of the highest buildings. Merely looking down as the man whom had just "killed" him spoke to a small group of people, in his hand he held a tattered trench coat, in his other, he held the DeathWish.
"Prize?" The amusement in his voice was clear. "I guess every tool likes to think they've made an impact in the world."
"Who is he? Why can I see this? Is this.... An other world?" He felt the wind through his hair and then a sudden rush of wind as he suddenly came back to his senses, he lie on the ground for a long while and waited for his head to stop spinning. He lie there for some time and then finally, pushed himself into a sitting position, the world lurched around him, he stopped and waited once more. Drawing in a deep breath he looked down at his knee, it had finally healed, he wondered somewhere in the back of his mind what that guy had been using. He placed his hand to his head, this was not the time for such things, he drew in another deep breath and then finally got back to his feet, it took him some minutes further to fully gain his bearings.
".... Although grateful. How did I get to Bevelle?" He asked himself calmly. Well, he was not quite at Bevelle, more on the outskirts, yet the venture into civilisation would not be entirely unwelcome, perhaps he would be able to acquire himself some new clothes, the ones he was wearing now were in tatters, from the hole and frayed hems of his trench coat to the hole in the knee of his jeans and his boots, which were now falling apart, he began to wonder how he was still able to wear them. He smirked to himself.
"Well, I may have very little money, but hey, I'm pretty sure some of the wealthier retailers won't notice if I hide some of their wares in the VII Flame for later use." He began his trek forwards, simply for some new clothes, perhaps somewhere to bathe as well, he was beginning to feel some of the grime and other dirt he had managed to accumulate since waking up in Zanarkand, though, he thought that most of it was from his body lying on the ground in those ruins for. However long he had been lying there, the amount of time was irrelevant all that mattered now was getting himself a newer image, after all, these were the same clothes he had been wearing when he was 17, they were too small for him anyway.
"The dawning of a newer age, I suppose I had better make myself look a little bit more presentable."
The central city of Spira, Bevelle. It was a city with an air of theological rule around it. The very place stunk of religion, but also of progress. The temple itself, although ancient and old, had metallic structures, including the Highbridge and the machines on either side that took you to and forth from the far end of the bridge to the other. That was if you didn't want to enjoy the sights and scenery of the great city itself. Recent events however had taken a tool on Bevelle. Only 3 months ago a tragedy had broken out here. The moment a summoner had left the docks Sin had appeared on the horizon, and began a devistating attack. A nearby tradesman was talking about it already.
" Yeah they say that her guardian cut the rope holding sin to the boat.... bastard got a lot of people killed and the damage done to the merchants quarter still hasn't been repaired. My shops totally ruined, flood damage to the stock, the wheat didn't survive....".
The other man seemed a little bit more enlightened. " You know that even if the rope hadn't been cut Sin would have made it to Bevelle...no way one ship could have held it off....an entire fleet couldn't even do that....the Sailors just wanted...no needed someone to blame. That Guardian was their scapegoat.". A slow nod of agreement from the more dimwitted of the two. " I suppose...still, I wouldn't want to be in that mans shoes right now...wait till he and his summoner have to get back here...he's going to be having a lot of enemies around for the trip". The wiser one shook his head and sighed. " Shame that....we can't really afford to be putting our summoners in any more danger than they already are....".
" Speaking of which have you heard about the summoners going missing recently?....".
A nod from the more dim witted one in response. " Yeah something to do with them Al Bhed isn't it?". The wiser one thought for a moment. " Perhaps....but you never know....seems that the Al Bhed might be a scapegoat too...Yevon knows they have been for a lot of things lately...".
Ruien walked in silence, simply listening to the sounds of people talking, other travelers and citizens of the great city alike. Ruien smirked to himself, back during the war he knew that he would have slaughtered everyone here without a moments thought, however, times had changed, Ruien knew that. No, he had witnessed it first hand when that beast emerged from somewhere within Zanarkand. The war was long since over and he could only begin to imagine what had happened since his departure. He heard speak of Summoners, of course he knew what they were, since that was what the majority of the front line fighters in Zanarkand were made of, it seemed as though right now they were a pretty big deal world-wide if they were being talked about even here.
"Hmph, seems I was right." He mumbled to himself as he walked past the small group nonchalantly, he was behind the times as he had expected, however, he had little interest for such matters, he had his own plans, one of them being intending to make full sense of what he had heard and seen at the gateway. He made it into the city with no incident and then, voices, Ruien stood still, leaning against a wall as he heard the sound of his own voice, the voices of people he had not yet met and the sound of rain. A white flash and then. There he was, stood near a group of people all talking among themselves, he had the katana-esque sword in his left hand. It had served him well for years.
He stood listening to the group as they argued, making no progress in coming up with a tactic to bring down Sin, despite the two summoners walking among their ranks, it seemed as though their pilgrimage had fallen short of getting to their ultimate goal, so at least this would become interesting. regardless, these clueless morons needed direction.
"So, the great Sin? I don't see where all the fear comes from to me, it just looks fat." He had spoken loud enough to get a response, most of them shocked expressions for his remark, but Ruien paid them little mind. He had spent the better part of the last one thousand years simply honing his skills, his prowess and going around the world, getting to know it while it developed into the hovel it was still so slowly becoming. He smirked, resting his blade on his shoulder, so, they had all stopped talking for the time being, but Ruien needed to keep going.
"You should really listen to yourselves. So far, all I've heard from you are heated debates, that, are simply going around in circles. You should have been more prepared for this. You all know it. Talking isn't going to solve anything now. You know as well as I do that we're going to have to take the fight to Sin now." He spoke calmly, seeing only one person in the group coming to terms with what he had just said, yes this was going to be fun, he knew it.
Everything subsided only moments later, leaving Ruien somewhat dazed, he put a hand to his head and stood in an almost shocked silence, the scenery of the Bevelle he had just seen suggested that the time-frames were similar, but a one-thousand year stay in that other world, Ruien could hardly bring himself to believe it. He shook his head, no, he could not become too sidetracked with such minor details, he had been out for one thousand years and was still able to hold his own, which was always a good thing, he would see to the other details surrounding his stay in that hell-hole at a later time. Right now he had things to be doing. But he was not entirely sure how he was going to go about them.
People stood out from the crowd. Two to be exact. White lab coats, with a symbol on the front. The symbol...so vaguely familar.....then it hit you....the M-Labs....you had seen the exct same symbol on the gates, and in the door frame. Where these men scientists who had worked there, or did they belong to a wider group with a similar agenda as to the man who had worked at M-Labs. The one with the red hair. The man who had shot you. The one who had almost killed you. He was connected to their research somehow. Following close behind you would over hear some of their conversation.
" So hows the tests going on those subjects". Minor silence then a reply. " Sure its ok to talk about this here? someone might overhear us...". A smirk and a lugh. " You kidding me? these people wouldn't go near any of our machines...they wouldn't have a clue what we're talking about anyways....". The nervous one nodded. " I suppose.....things are going...well strangely....the viral content seems to be reacting to these subjects differently from the ones on the other continents.....suppose the rumours about the monsters on this continent are true...they're made of hateful souls....". The other one shook it off. " Corrupted mako my friend...no more no less.....still I find it odd how some of my own subjects react to the blight....". A falling silence.
" Come...we'd best head back to the labs.....". The scientists walked into the ampitheatre, and then on the wall....entered a few digits...an elevator opened up and they went down. It was your choice whether or not to follow...however you'd have to find a way in. The choices in front of you were...blow down the elevator door and let everyone know you were coming. Or sneak in under the guise of a scientist...it seemed to be lunch time for them...so there would likely be some about.
Choice Event: 1, Blast your way in [ Alerts them] 2, Find a scientist, get the password, steal his clothes, and sneak in undetected. [ 500 words]
Ruien had continued walking in a random direction as he heard two scientists talking, most of it seemed to be related in one way or another to that which Ruien had either already found or was looking for, so this was a good sign, well as far as he was concerned. As they walked past him he glimpsed the sight of the insignia on their coats and cast a quick glance around, noticing more of them sitting about. The insignia he recognised from that lab he had been in before he had been attacked, he smirked lightly, so they had more than a single base around, well then Ruien would just have to infiltrate it and find out exactly what was going on.
"Since their front door is in the open I guess they won't mind." He looked around, most of the scientists he could see were eating in groups and talking among themselves, it would make things pretty obvious if one went missing and did not come back, he needed to find a man by himself and then take him out of sight and deal with what needed to be done. He walked around some of the small stores he could find while scoping out where these scientists were sitting, when one of them left or whenever he glimpsed a solitary scientist getting food, however, one large part of the reason he was observing from stores and other like-wise locations was so that he could procure himself some newer, cleaner clothes.
He managed to get himself a plain black vest, a new black ankle length trench-coat, a new pair of slacks and buckle boots that would have traveled half way up his shins. Of course each seller was non-the wise since Ruien had simply stored them within his old home via the VII Flame so that he could put them on later. That was when he spotted his chance, a rather tense looking scientist was giving a formal report to his superiors and then walked away to get some food, this was it. He ran and intercepted the scientist before he could get to the food court.
"Excuse me doctor!" He was acting as though he was out of breath "I've seen something you might want to have a look at." The scientist looked puzzled for a moment and then allowed Ruien to lead the way. This was perfect, he lead the scientist around the city and out of sight and then to the outskirts of the city where he quickly knocked the scientist to the ground, took his clothes and replaced the tattered clothes he was currently wearing with them.
"Gee, I'm grateful no-one is around to see this." He muttered to himself as he smoothed out the lab coat he was now wearing, he checked to make sure that everything looked right and then used the VII Flame to bring the doctor back to his senses. He kept the good doctor held in place with the VII Flame enveloping his entire body.
"Ok, if you don't tell me the code to that little base you have in the city then I'm going to kill you." The scientist was panicking, Ruien could see it in his eyes, and only seconds later he cracked.
"5813" Came the breathless and panicked response, Ruien smirked lightly.
"Thank you Doctor" he said before using the power of the VII Flame to completely destroy the scientist.
"But I can't have you blowing my cover before I've done what I needed to do." He disposed of his old clothes and walked calmly back in the direction of the base they had, finding the panel was a simple matter, he stepped through the door and into a life-like structure, however, the only way was down. A thirty second trip and he found himself emerging in a white hallway with scientists and security personal alike roaming the hallways. He was in, he just needed to find out where he was going next.
Scientists in white lab coats wandered up and down the halls, the place seeed to be not only similar to M-Labs, but almost as if someone had copied the exact architecture of the place in the Lost continent and had built it here. And if that was true, that meant two continents. Two labs. Just how many of these labs were there. And spanned over how many continents? All questions that needed to be answered. But for now all you could do was stumble forwards. Left and right there were different kinds of experiments going on in the rooms. Most of them contained fiends, injecting them with various chemicals. Just as you were looking into one of these rooms at the experiments yu were tapped on the shoulder by one of the scientists who had a guard with him.
He didn't look too impressed. He pushed his glasses up and then stared at you.
" I'm guessing your one of the new personel sent over from the Midgar facility? yes...you've got that look of new blood about you....well...Welcome to the M-Labs....Spira is not a friendly enviroment for us men of science...but the secrets here are incredible....come....I'll show you one of our latest developments....".
He took you by the arm and led you into one of the rooms, 3 people strapped down onto tables. Another man in a white coat was injecting one of them with a substance. " You know of the Blight right?....the solomons blight?". He grinned. " Yes...well ever since its discovery in Lost...we've been performing various experiments on them here...most of these experiments have been with humans...monsters....of course you know humans without a mako level of 0.50% in their blood stream cannot survive with the blight in their body....". He scratched his chin. " As you know...fiends....the monsters of Spira are rumoured to be different from the rest of Gaia...creatures made of stagnant mako...the souls of the dead....results have been...interesting....". He laughed as the bodies on the table began to twitch. One of them stopped struggling...and opened its eyes.However it was as if it was staring into space. Pyreflies began to form around the body.
" Now we are performing experiments on the ' unsent'....of course I don't have to tell you how secretive this is....gather and...making...our own unsent is highly illegal.....". The scientist crossed his arms, the unsent on the table began to writhe again, followed by the others. Veins began to bulge on their bodies. Growing paler than usual. Their nails extending to claws. They let out a breath, like a deaths breath as their eye colour changed to an orange hue.
Ruien walked around as he thought a scientist would have done, observing various rooms, which, to no surprise were all performing various experiments of one kind or another, he began to draw connections from the facility he had visited on the Lost Continent to this one, of course he had found this place to be almost identical to the last with only one difference, people still worked here. It was then that someone else that worked here got his attention, security, Ruien figured that he had been discovered already and was ready to fight when he was suddenly asked if he were the new guy sent in from Midgar. Ruien gave a false smile and nodded.
"Yes, yes I am." He soon found himself being dragged through the many corridors of the facility and soon enough into a room, strongly resembling some kind of laboratory, of course that was exactly what this room was, yet Ruien stood in silence, simply wondering what it was they were testing here. That was when his "superior" briefed him on what was going on here. "Solomon's Blight?" Ruien thought, the way this scientist had just explained it made it sound as though this was what they had used to make that woman in the last facility he had visited. The scientist continued explaining their work, mentioning that they were conducting tests with Unsent, making their own for the purpose of experimentation. They were killing people, Ruien had little to no reason to care about the murder of people he did not know, he was here for his own goals, so for now he would play along. Calmly he walked up to the man strapped to the table top and looked at him as though he was impressed.
"Yes, very interesting indeed. If I remember the briefing correctly it states that, as you've just said those without a sufficient amount of Mako in their bloodstream will die if they come into contact with the Blight. Would I be correct in assuming that we've all seen the result of Mako infused individuals, SOLDIER or otherwise, when they come into contact with the Blight? Of course the briefing did also state that the specimens were human, has the acquisition of non-human specimens been considered at all? And I'm not talking of things like fiends, I'm thinking of more.... Sentient specimens." Ruien said, mentally praising what he had just said, although he had understood very little of what he had just said, mostly due to a lack of information it sounded very good, at least to his ears. He stood, acting as though he was observing the guy on the table top before turning his back to the guy and facing the scientist whom had brought him here.
"Unless, of course that has already been considered and done, I wasn't briefed on what was new, only on what the experiments were of. I suppose it was a decision made to prevent unwelcome individuals learning too much of our endeavors, I was told that the rest of my briefing would be given on sight, I'm assuming that this is it?" He inquired, feigning some confusion as he looked back to some of the specimens on the tables, acting as they were, he stood in silence for only a moment longer.
"This is very interesting. I've never seen them act like this before." He said, moving back to observe the newly created unsent, well he was indeed heading in the correct direction, so it was not a matter of "if" but of "when" he would find exactly what he was looking for.
" Indeed we're seeing very varied results on this....". The scientist stared down at the paitent, still mutating whilst struggling round on the table. Thorns began to sprout from its skin, the man next to you made a hand gesture and the security officers wheeled away the cart. Screams were heard in the room they wheeled it into, but they wern't human screams. At least. Not anymore. The scientist turned around to you and then seemed to have a thoughtful look on his face.
" You know I've been wondering lately if these symptoms displayed by the unsent in this continent have any links towards the Midgarian experiements thirty years ago with corrupted mako...."
He looked to you again and adjusted his glasses. " Do you know about those? I wouldn't blame you if you didn't....I did my project thesis on them....not many outside of the Shinra science labs ever did get any hint of what was going on back then...of course old man ' M' himself started off there....and he told me all about it......Alpha Project....". He nodded. " Yes...I'm starting to see a bit of a resemblense here between what was going on to the base research specimens there...and those exposed to the Blight.
" Hmm.....be a good boy and run down to the file room and collect me some of the research papers on Alpha project will you? heres the keys...."
Ruien stood in silence, nodding every so often as his "superior" spoke, in his minds eye he was playing the part well, keeping quiet, allowing this scientist to think that he was the one in control here, Ruien managed to hide his surprise when the scientist ahead of him gave him the keys to the data room and asked him to get some papers on the "Alpha Project" Ruien nodded as he caught the keys.
"Right away." He said, in a tone that would suggest that he was being obedient, he turned on his heel and left the room smirking to himself as he calmly made his way toward the data room, of course he had to stop and ask for it, adding to how well he was playing out the act, after all, the new guy would not know his way around on the first day. This was too easy, after a few moments of walking he found himself slotting the key into the lock and walking into a wide open room.
"Thank you indeed good Doctor." He muttered to himself, closing the door behind him as he entered, the room was large, open and vaguely circular, lined with multiple consoles, file cases and other containers that were more than likely home to mountains of other documents never before seen by the eyes of those not deemed worthy to know what they contained. Ruien smirked to himself once more, he highly doubted that he would have the time to look through every file in the room, but he should have more than enough time to read at least one.
"Hmph, Alpha project? Perhaps I should take a quick look at that." He walked over to the nearest filing cabinet and opened the drawer marked "A-B" the weight, although nothing to Ruien was surprising, the sheer amount of paper work in there was something he had no expected, crammed full of it. Ruien understood now why there were only two letters on this one as apposed to the usual four.
"They have been busy haven't they? Make me wonder just how much they have discovered." He mumbled to himself, finding the tab marked "Alpha Project, The" he paused for a moment and then decided that this would probably be the document that would hold the most interest to him, after all, if it had anything to do with the experiments going on in that room as the lead scientist had suggested then it would only make sense. With some difficulty he separated that file from the rest and took it over to one of the desks in the middle of the room, if he wanted any chance of finding out what this was all about he would have to read it quickly.
Anti weapon project. Iflanas recent development with the planets weapons has began to worry President Shinra. And so it should. Draining the planets lifeforce to fuel our own society, is not only considered sacralidge by the Cetra. But also something that might incur the wrath of the planet. Thus far nothing has happened to actually prove that the planets weapons have awakened. But President Shinra is in no mood to play it dangerous. They wish to have a collateral plan incase these weapons awaken. And the proposed plan by the science department is to create our own Anti-Weapon. Alpha Project as they are calling it is a join work between myself ( acting in a advice sector position) and Professor Grimoire Valentine.
Weapon project will be made using the best in mako based technology. As well as the recent discovery of Grimoire and his assistant the Lady Lucrecia. A dark varient of mako.
Part two. Experimentation with monsters.
Thus far monster experimentation has gone disasterously. Although the monsters injected with the joint varient of dark mako and true mako become stronger. They also seem to loose all form of control. This is what we wish to avoid. An anti weapon we can't control is as dangerous to us as the weapons themselves.
Another adverse side effect, is that their bodies begin to degenerate after a certain amount of time, which seems to depend on the bodies ability to fight off the mako invasion of the cells.
[[ Several Pages missing]]
Part 10: Completion, but not success.
The late professor Grimoire's research has come in handy in completing the project. Unfortunatly with Gast's death, we were unable to get his input on the project. And the adverse efect of that seems to have ended in the failure of the project. Alpha Weapon is complete.
But ultimately, a failure.
The creature can be controlled. To an extent. Unfortunatly, the creation of the beast, and its power, required high levels of mako. Unforseen was that this would result in an addiction to mako energy. In order to retain its lifeforce. The beast must vampiricly feed from mako sources.
Due to its sheer size, and the constant consumption of mako. We have come to the conclusion that the beast would be detrimental to Shinra. It has been placed in a cryocontainment at an area of high mako levels. The exact location, which I cannot digress in this file. Is known only by 3 people. Myself. President Shinra. And Lucrecia Crescent.
Ruien cocked an eyebrow as he read through the file, it was anti-climactic, he had expected something a little bit more, he shrugged inwardly, glancing toward the other file cases and computers, simply wondering if there was anything about the gateway in this room. Yet he wanted to keep his ruse going for a little while longer, he knew that if he were able to stick around for just a little while longer then he would find out something of interest, and right now, thinking as a subordinate should he knew that he was pushing his luck in getting this file. He did have an excuse of course as this was his "first day" after all. He turned making his way back to the door.
He made sure that he locked it once he was on the other side, keeping up his appearance of a new scientist. Spinning the keys on his index finger he began to walk back to the room he had originally been in, and, just to keep the ruse solid, he acted as though he was holding onto the document as though his life depended on it. He found himself wondering what exactly it all meant, his mind turning with questions. The majority of his questions revolving around the voices and brief flashes on himself, wondering if there really were other versions of this world, one where he was feared as that wolf-like demon had said.
"What were they?" He mumbled to himself, when he had started out everything had seemed to be so much simpler, escape from that realm of half-death and then investigate some rumors he had heard one thousand years ago. Now, everything was starting to unravel rapidly, much of it beginning to lose what little sense it had made in the first place. Yet he knew that he had to keep pressing forward, he paused for a moment to consider something. The almost constant mentions of his inevitble death.
"Am I really going to die prematurely?" He asked himself mentally, anxiety began to build as he considered the variety of ways in which that feat was possible, as of yet he had no real quarrel with anyone so he figured that he was safe, for the time being. He smirked to himself, shrugging inwardly as he began to walk toward his destination, even if he was to die before his time was due, the chances of it happening any time soon were low, there was nothing he had to worry about, well, other than keeping his cover intact that is.
"My apologies for the delay sir, it took me a little bit to find the room and the document you requested." He said, adding a slight tone of uncertain anxiousness to his voice as he spoke, just like the new guy to panic when he got things wrong or took longer than he should have done. He handed the document over to the scientist and stood in silence for a while before.
"Sir. I must admit that something piqued my curiosity just before I was sent out here. I read some reports, well. Very vague reports of research into some kind of gateway. When I pressed the others for further details I didn't get a great deal of information. Only some mutterings about the Blight and that was it. I was wondering, what exactly the Gateway was all about." Ruien stood in silence again, his expression one of curiosity, which for him right now was not a hard thing to feign. All he had to do now was wait for the response. At least he hoped it would be that easy.
" Gateway...XXVI...>". The voice of the scientist who had spoken before rang throughout the room. " Yes, thats probably ne of the things that begun our research, I'm suprised you would know of it, usually its just labled down as subject XXVI, yet...then again...people do tend to blab...even here where our security is tightest....so, I suppose if you already know about it...then its quite alright to talk about it...". He pushed up his glasses. " One of those things....we can only talk about it, if you already know...quite humourous.....that was old, M's idea....". He walked over to the file concerning Alpha Weapon. " Ah I see you found it...good...this will come in handy.....oh...a few pages were missing....must have seemed like complete nonsense then to you....my I am quite embarassed....". He removed a cigarette from his pocket and lit it up.
" Allow me to explain then...in part four of the file, the good doctor began to experiment on the unsent as part of his research, monsters who were injected began powerful, but then died as a result of the viral and mako overload in their veins...so he came to think...what would happen to those who were...in a sense...already dead?...".
He shrugged. " That is the similarity between the Alpha Project, and M-Labs research, here in Spira....". He shook his head. " Ah yes, now back on topic....as you know the viral contamenant known as Solomon's Blight is our main interest at the moment....we first came in contact with the virus at the Lost Continent research labs. I was one of the few stationed there who eh...made it to the evacuation centre....". He took a deep draw of his cigarette. Puffed out the smoke and continued.
" What is kept secret is just how we found the virus, the truth is. And be prepared to laugh at me. That the virus came through the Gateway. Well. In a sense. Old M argues about that day in and out....he believes that the gateway itself did not manifest. Merely a rip in the temporal fabric caused by two alternate beings existing at the same place on a different plane of existance.....but regardless of that thought....What we know is that the Gateway was built by someone...or something.....and that it connects our world...with other worlds.....".
He closed his eyes. " Now realise I do not mean other planets....I mean...other dimensions...other versions of our own world...Now it is our theory that Gateway XXVI is not the only Gateway of its kind.....we believe that there are many more, hidden throughout our world...and that each one connects to a single alternate version of our world....".
" The world Gateway XXVI connected to....was a world we believed to have been ravaged by the solomon's blight...now as you can imagine...for this reason we keep the virus under extreme quarantine proceedures...and we've genetically altered the make up of any of our subjects, so that the virus cannot be passed on through wounds or body fluid contact....even then....it is still extremely dangerous....proper proceedure was not followed at the M-Labs in the Lost continent...then again we had no real knowledge of the virus back then.....the place was cleansed...and abandoned....very few of us made it out alive...".
Ruien listened silently as the good doctor spoke, so it seemed as though it had been a long difficult road for them to even get this far, they had obviously screwed up more than once with the Blight, which, judging by the carefully chosen words of the Good Doctor had resulted in heavy casualties.
"So, they've hit hard learning curves themselves." He thought as he continued to carefully listen to the words of the scientist, so the picture was slightly clearer now, the gateway linked not to different worlds but possible alternative universes' each one different depending on the gateway in question. Ruien would have laughed at himself out loud right now if he weren't trying to maintain his disguise.
"That makes sense. In my ignorance I didn't think of the possibility of other gateways. At first I figured the XXVI to be a number simply regarding the number of the project in question." He said aloud, feigning a look of deep thoughtfulness, his mind racing, the revelations had been fairly small but still had been a huge amount of information when compared to what he had known previously. He continued the silence to follow for a period of time, wondering if he should press any further onto the subject of the Alpha Weapon, but he had a feeling that right now any further insight onto the matter would prove to be meaningless to him.
"Sir, if I may inquire here. You mentioned that the gateway could be a tear resulting from the existence of two identical beings living at the same time in different dimensions. If you think of it in that sense surely it was not a result of only two identical beings, but of millions. Maybe Billions. If the possibility of multiple gateways turns out to be true then surely it could mean that there are currently a close to infinite number of identical beings living in alternative realities to this one. Could the possibility exist that the gateway were constructed not to simply open and close the gateway, or gateways. But merely to contain it or them and prevent reality from tearing itself asunder?" Ruien asked, in a longer way than he had initially intended to, yet he had a feeling that the main point of the question had been asked, judging by what this doctor had just said the thought had occurred to Ruien that maybe, just maybe. Long ago it had been open knowledge that these alternative dimensions, or realities as they seemed more likely to be even existed. If any of this was indeed true then it would only make Ruiens little investigation into the gateway that much more difficult. In fact the more h thought about it the more complex things seemed to become, this was looking to only get increasingly difficult as Ruien learned greater things still.
"Perhaps, this was not as simple as I first thought it was going to be." He thought to himself, his awakening from that world of half-death had seemed to be so long ago now that he wondered if it would have been best for him to accept death there and then.
The scientist shook his head. " Ah no, my friend I think you misheard me...we believe the gateways are..nothing more than that....however the result in the small tear in time and space. Was caused by M himself existing in the same place. At the same time. As his alternate reality self...in a place where the gap between worlds was weak enough as it was....". He walked over to the white board on the side of the room and picked up a pen. He began to draw. You see my friend we believe that there are normally barriers in between dimensions...we refer to these barriers as walls of reality.
I I I I < Wall of reality I I
" Now you see...we believe that where the Gateway is constructed.....there is a thining of this Wall...allowing for objects...and even people...to pass through it...should the conditions be correct....we believe that the Gateway provides these conditions....however....we're not quite sure just what those conditions are..and for that reason we are unable to manufacture our own...".
I I I I I I O < Thinned Reality wall. I I I I I I
" For whatever reason however, recently Gateway XXVI has been completely devoid of activity....we've come to the conclusion that...it is very possible...the world on the otherside of the gate has been destroyed...".
"Hmph, interesting. So the theory could be that both versions, if you like. of 'M' were researching the same thing, which caused this tear? I'm not entirely sure what to make of this. It all seems to be complex stuff." Ruien said calmly, examining the small diagram the scientist had drawn on the small white board. Simple enough to explain when in theory, but difficult to understand without any real knowledge on the subject. Ruien him self had some understanding of the gateway and was still struggling to really get to grips with it all. He let out a heavy sigh and shook his head.
"I must admit that my own views on this subject seem to constantly change. Like this is one of those subjects that despite having much time and effort invested into its research, still is very much hard to really understand." He explained calmly, still looking at the simple diagram on the white board. He had no idea why, there was no real reason to any more, maybe he was expecting to find some kind of deeper meaning to it than others, yet, it was futile. He knew above all else he would need to find out everything about the gateway before he understood anything about it. Ruien cracked his knuckles and turned away from the white board, things were moving forward so slowly that Ruien was not sure if they were really going anywhere at all, progress had been slow and all this acting was beginning to grate on his nerves.
"Hmph. I recall your saying that in order to really test the Blight you had been creating Unsent. May I see the end result of these tests? I must admit I am quite interested in seeing what the Blight actually does." He asked, not knowing what kind of an answer to expect, they thought he had come here after being recommended from Midgar, however, ion their eyes he would still be the "New Guy" so they would more than likely still be wondering if it would be worth showing him some of their more complex experiments. Well either that or they would still be wondering if they could trust him. He shrugged inwardly, and figured that if it eventually came down to it he would fight his way through the facility just to see if he could get any more information. After all, there were only scientist, some guards and fiends here, it would to be that big an issue to wipe them all out.
" Ah but of course...who would I be if I didn't show you the basic fundament of this semesters current research....now if you'll just come with m-". There was a huge explosion. It rocked the floor and walls. Pieces of concrete begining to crumble. Water flooded around your feet, noticing theat in the rooms of research a few pipes seemed to have burst. There were screams as gunfire began to go off. Security officers around you began to rush towards the source of the disturbance. But each one that went only seemed to feed the screams. Each one moving in only proving another body. Another mouth.
There was fear on the face of the scientist. " No...it can't be.....they havn't come already.....I thought we had at least a few months left.....bastards...BASTARDS...". And as quickly as it had came. The gunfire ended. Footsteps echoing throughout the water. Men passed the room you were in, strangely dressed. Mostly in black, high technology. Clearly they wern't from Spira. Then...a man walked by. And without a pause turned to the room.
The scientist almost blew a top.
" You bastards!....what do you think you'll accomplish with this?".
The man looked on, his silver hair and low eyes seemed almost familar to you. "Told you...".He shook his head. " I won't let you research that virus....it already destroyed one world...I'm not having it destroy another...". He pulled out a gun, and put a bullet through the scientists head. He looked at you. Then squinted his eyes.
"Impossible....are you?....no....he's dead....you must be this Gaia's version.....odd...never imagined him as the sneak around type....just what are you doing dressed as a scientist?".
The building rocked around him and some pipes burst, the building was under attack, that much was painfully obvious. Although Ruien could not possibly fathom whom would want to attack a building full of scientists, he slumped his shoulders and shook his head, the scientist closest to him had not noticed. There was a brief silence and only seconds later the scientist was dead. Ruien looked up into the face of the new comer and saw flashes of him self interacting with this man, he caught brief snippets of conversation.
"Psh. It doesn't matter what I put you against it's not like either of you will survive it." A brief flash of Heru-Soeki and then he was back in his own body, he blinked once and shook his head. This man, he had met him, well, only in a technical sense, but.
"I've seen you somewhere before." He said calmly, and stood looking at him for a long while. He put a hand to his head and dropped his act of newbie scientist, it was not going to be fooling this man and Ruien knew it.
"You couldn't have waited until I had what I wanted?" He asked and sighed heavily.
"Perhaps My self and my otherworldly counterpart differ slightly. Or maybe greatly, who knows? If I'm dead where you come from I can only guess that means that there are a great many things you'll never know about either of us." He said calmly, not taking his eyes away from this man, the image of his face becoming clearer as the seconds passed. The familiarity began to grate on his nerves. And the name, it hung just out of his reach, as if he knew it one second and then forgot it the next, he shook his head once more.
"So what is it you want? Since you're so surprised to see me here you obviously weren't here to kill me. And since you speak as though I'm exactly like the Ruien you knew it is unlikely you were here to capture me." He spoke calmly, running his hand over the top of his head, brushing strands of his own silvery hair away from his face. Drawing in yet another deep breath he took a step forward, the water around his ankles splashing loudly as he did so.
"Was the Blight so bad? If you're here to prevent the research I'm not going to stop you. I could care less about it, I'm merely here to find out more about the Gateway. I must admit, I wasn't expecting to actually see anyone from the other side. You are so familiar to me, yet I have no idea who you are. Perhaps you can enlighten me by telling me your name." He said calmly, leaving a long silence to follow, he took note of each person here, each and every one of them held some kind of firearm, not much of an issue, conventional weaponry was more-or-less redundant against Ruien. Though there was something about the man leading them that bugged Ruien, he might pose some kind of threat from the rest of these foot soldiers, he would have to keep an eye on his just in case combat was unavoidable; he shook his head once and smiled lightly.
"I have to ask though. You don't think for the briefest moment that you're the one responsible for bringing the virus you fear so much to this world? What's to say that when you walked through that archway that you didn't bring some trace of it here with you?"
He spat out even before you finished your last statement. He crossed his arms. " I'll be honest with you Ruien, I didn't expect you to be here....hell...I half expected you to be.....". He looked at his watch. " Running around Gaia collecting ancient artifacts to summon gods...". He shook his head. " Yet..this Gaia is different...that much I know....Zero isn't a summoner....Adiona is....he's the guardian....Galbadia are winning the war instead of Midgar.....". He sighed and closed his eyes.
" Everything changes in this world....not massive changes...but small minor ones....I came to this world thinking that I'd stepped back in time...but as the changes happened I saw that this wasn't the Gaia I knew....it was one totally different....and what does that make me?..."
He smirked. " A remnant.....from a future and a past......". He kicked off the wall and took a couple of steps forward. "...You've not seen what this virus can do....you didn't even get to see it in my world.....clearly you know a few things about the other world....so let me tell you, how it ended...".
ATE: Journey's End BGM: Shinra's Theme
It all began during our final fight. In the last months of Gaia before the blight, you have no idea what kind of hell we lived in. Threats from all sides, at any moment, at any time. Our world could have came crumbling down. In response to this. In the early days of the world of ruin, we created the union of Gaia. A group of fighters from around the world. Absolutely deicated to a single cause. The protection of our world.
It was started. Heh....in Shinra HQ, during the attack on Midgar. Who could have thought it eh? Shinra bringing us all together. Of course. Later on that all changed. The Union of Gaia was doomed from the begining. The seeds of our destruction planted at birth.
Yuna, shes a pretty much unknown in this world. But in our world, she was the high summoner. She managed to defeat Sin, forever. And remain alive afterwards. Of course. She wasn't alone. There was another. At the time, lesser known High Summoner. He'd helped the defeat of Sin as well. But, Spira being a theocrasy, decided that shared fflory wasn't what they needed. They needed a single figure of power. One that could be easily loved by the people.
Yuna took all the glory. And left Zero with the seeds of bitter resentment.
Zero was involved in a lot of our battles. In fact. As I remember. He sort of looked up to your other self. Even went on a crusade to avenge you when he thought you were dead. Yet, despite all the battles he'd been in. All it took was for Yuna to show up again, and all eyes were on her. At the time, it wasn't just Zero. There was a few of them who could have used our comradeship and advice. But. As the members of the union moved into Yuna like moths to a light bulb. The others, faded into darkness. Becoming twisted. No better than those we fought against.
After the battle on the plains of contego the union crumbled and died. We were broken. The enemies of Gaia began to amass. And un-united. We couldn't fight them. Some of the enemies...were even our old allies.
*His eyes move up at this point, as if he is carefully considering his words*
Even you. But. One by one. We all grew strong, and managed to defeat the enemies of Gaia. Things...were looking great. As if there was finally some hope on a horizon of despair, that seemed to strech on forever. Our final battle was against, arguably, our greatest threat. A man called Morona, or, Morpheus. His powers were great...but after a long hard battle...he was defeated. Killed mercilessly. But...that was only the begining of our nightmare. ----
" Its finally over, we're done....". Tzigone said, his hands laid out on the table. " Might have to take care of Adiona and Zero though...those two....they'll be trouble..." Iceburn noted from the other side of the meeting room. A slightly more battle worn Kojira shook his head. Ever since losing Yuna he'd been a wreck. " I agree the bastard should die, but honestly....I'm too tired now....its only been two days since we killed Morpheus, and already the sky is begining to turn blue again. We've won guys....lets take a bit of a break...". Tzigone nodded. " So...what now guys?".
Iceburn smirked. " Me?...I'm headed back to Spira, always had trouble controlling the beast within me, thought maybe the Ronso might be able to help.....". Tzigone's eyes moved over to Kojira. " I'm going to see Yuna". By that he meant her grave in Balamb garden. " What about you Tzigone?". The silver haired man kicked back his chair and looked to the sky. " I think....Me and Animus are done travelling now....buy a place in Lindblum...settle down....". There was a laugh from iceburn. " Ha....You know that dragon isn't done growing?....what kind of house are you going to buy with that?". Tzigone smirked. " What are you talking about?....I ain't buying...thats the Regents job...hell....he owes us that much I'd wager he'd move out of the castle if I asked". Shared laughter. But it didn't last.
Three months after we’d defeated Morpheus. That’s when we started noticing the changes. The world had returned to normal. Grass was growing. The sky was blue. The water was clean. But good things never last.
“ Just what are we looking at here?...”.
“ Water…please….”
“ Don’t…this looks like some kind of infection…share your water with him you might be the next victim”.
“ For gods sake can’t we just take him to the river then?”
“ And infect that too?”.
The infection started to show up first in Contego. Quickly the city of purity showed just how dark a place can become once survival of the fittest becomes a factor. But regardless of water rationing and quarantines imposed. The infection continued to race along the city, we weren’t quite sure if the Contego infection was the only place on the lost continent. All we know is days after we lost contact with the city, we lost contact with Wutai as well. After that…the infection began to pop up in the costal cities. Almost as if it had a mind of its own. Spreading outwards from the lost continent like a form of radiation. Sooner or later. The entire planet was infected. There wasn’t anywhere you could go to escape from it….for whatever reason….I…and a few of the others who had been there upon Morpheus’s death…weren’t being effected by the disease…suppose that’s were it got its name….Iceburn mentioned in a world discussion…the possibility of it having something to do with Morona Solomon….Morpheus…..and well…it stuck….After a few months…world leaders started dying. One by one…people at our deligation table began to disappear….chairs would remain empty…until it was only the few of us left…..
Don’t get me wrong…there were others unaffected by the plague…the majority of them were from families who had ties to cetran blood…and get this…Soldier…..we figured that those with a high mako count in their blood stream were for whatever reason highly resistant to the disease…
As for us….we had no idea…other than our powers we had no real link to one another.
As time passed….and people died. So did the planet. Grass became withered and turned to sand. Eventually the world became nothing but a desolate ruin. And I became the self styled leader of a group of nomads travelling from place to place…looking for salvation….”
-----
“ So you see…its impossible we brought it to this Gaia…by the time we opened the gateway….everyone who was infected was dead…our group were the last of the ones who were immune…”.
Ruien listened as this man spoke, his eyes narrowing slightly as he made mention of finding artifacts used in the summoning of Gods. A pain quickly shot through his head and more visions began to plague his consciousness. He stood, still impassive as he both took in what he could see from the visions and listened to what this man had to say.
"The... Arcana? Yes, I would have thought you might have mentioned that. I'm still not too sure on the specifics myself. But I can hazard a guess that you have no idea why the Ruien on your world did that do you?" He said calmly, for the time being his initial question was lost as he continued to listen to what this man had to say. Two names were mentioned, Zero and Adiona and only a brief vision flickered before his sight this time, one he remembered, the vision he had seen in that otherworld, just before he had fought and killed those wolf-like creatures.
"At least they have a name now." He said calmly.
"So, I know who they are, and judging by the Summoner and Guardian titles they seem to have. It'll be a safe bet to say that I'll find them somewhere in Spira." Knowledge that he had known in a different world, flooding in through every possible angle, his head ablaze with questions at what much of it could mean. But, as soon as it had started it had stopped once again, yet he had a feeling that he probably knew more than this man did in terms of that which he hated so. Though right now he was not going to test the ground, so to speak.
He listened once more as the man continued to speak, much more insight into how the world he had come from worked and what had happened during the last few months of its life. Ruien cocked an eyebrow as the man finished speaking ad shook his head once.
"You misunderstand me. When I said you could have brought the Blight with you, I mean that maybe it could gave come through by other means, perhaps not by person, by some other way." He said calmly, turning his back to the small group in the room with him and pacing toward the door at the other end of the room and stopping before getting to it.
"I can't say I can understand what you've gone through, since apparently I was some kind of widely hated bastard in your Gaia. But believe me when I say you had no idea what was going on behind the scenes during your Ruien's plans." He smirked catching the man whom he had taken to be the leader in his eyes.
"Just answer me one question. The man with red hair, is he one of you? He seemed to know who I was despite that being my first encounter with him. I think he might have been a crack-shot, very accurate." He said calmly, trying to avoid combat for the time being, this place was far too enclosed to really fight effectively and the water which still seemed to be rising very slowly would only hamper movement making any kind of fight impractical. Another brief flash and he shook his head, his eyes widened slightly as he saw something, even he deemed to be a big accomplishment, something that this man seemed to have overlooked, but, for the time being he was going to keep that quiet.
"Morona? Morpheus?" Ruien blinked and stood in silence as he thought back to what the scientist had called a man Ruien had once considered to be a superior of some kind.
"Old man 'M'?" He muttered
"You mentioned a Morpheus, or Morona, whichever name he was called by, I can only gather that he had some kind of significance in your Gaia. Since he seemed to have been, or maybe still is, a relatively significant figure here, tell me. Who exactly is he?"
The man looked up the moment you mentioned the name. " Morona?....Morona solomon?....". His eyes focused on you for a moment. "...He's dead....we killed him.....and for whatever reason...he doesn't exist in this world....theres very little that we don't know about what goes on in this world...an ant sneezes and you can bet your ass i'll know about it within 20 seconds.. ". This was of course an exadurated concept. However it did indicate about just how effective their information network was. " I saw what happened in Lindblum....got reports from witnesses about hearing voices....visions.....of him...I dunno what its about....". His eyebrows creased as he thought.
" Red haired marksman?....So its true then....Crimson is back....All I can say is you are damned lucky to be alive....but to answer your question. No Crimson is not one of us".
He seemed to think to himself for a moment. " Back in my world crimson was an agent for a group known as the Hive...I don't know if things will be the same..but from the way you are talking...its the same Crimson from my world...then I'm going to have to look into it....find out who he's working for.....". There was a call from the back saying something was ready, You didn't know quite what though. Tzigone walked out the door and pointed to the bed in the corner. " Theres an emergency escape tunnel down there...use it...". He removed something from his pocket...a trigger!.
He clicked the button and the room around you began to collapse in. Fortunatly...you survived with nothing more than a few minor injuries....but the rest of the labs was blocked off....all you could do now was ove through the escape tunnels....
"Ahh now I remember. You're the one that ruined my last coat. It was an expensive coat!" He shook his head and looked back up at the man and could only cock an eyebrow as the man pointed out an emergency escape hatch and then. The room shook violently as the men took their leave and then collapsed, Ruien was fast to move to the escape hatch and drop down into the dimly lit hallway below. He looked down at his arms, torso, and then legs. Other than a few minor scratches that had healed the second they had been inflicted Ruien was fine.
"Hmph. Interesting. Perhaps I can use these guys to my advantage. That is of course provided that I see them again." He said calmly to himself, turning on heel and walking through the narrow hall. After the busy sounds and active atmosphere of the lab previously the sudden silence and isolation here felt slightly unnerving.
"I wonder, he probably knows everything surrounding the gateway, I'd have to guess he'll more than likely come in handy later on... Then again, he assumed that myself and the Ruien of his Gaia were exactly the same despite knowing that there were at least some minor differences here... And, on top of that he had no idea as to the reason why the Ruien of his Gaia did what he did. Looks like he did a good job of making people think little of him and his goals." Questions had been answered and also created in a small space of time, everything he currently knew and everything he wanted to know began to whirl around in his mind. He had left the Zanarkand Ruins expecting nothing, expecting nothing more than rumors and dead ended quotations. What he ended up with was the discovery of multiple universes, mass trickery and secrecy, things had gotten to be very complex very quickly making Ruien wonder.
"Does this road have an end?" He mused out loud, contemplating the distance he had already traversed since leaving that otherworld and the likely distance he still had yet to traverse, he had to be honest with himself, so far it was looking to be an endless road with no meaning to it. He shook his head.
"This isn't me." He mumbled looking back the way he had walked briefly.
"No, I've found out enough already to know." He said calmly, continuing forward, this was a mere speed bump on the road forwards. Nothing was going to stop him from reaching the end of his self-imposed "quest" and any that did stand in his way. Well, perhaps at this point some things are better off left unsaid, the last person to provoke Ruiens wrath had ended up as a small puddle of blood on the path leading from the Gagazet Mountains down to Zanarkand.
"You've got to keep it to yourself! Failure to do so will result-"
"In what? Did you really think you could come here, into my domain and threaten me!? Foolish child!"
His next destination was gradually becoming clearer to him, the first thing he had to do, was leave this tunnel.
He lost track of the time that had elapsed when he finally emerged from the other end of the escape tunnel and drew in a deep breath, squinting as the bright light blurred his vision, standing up straight he cracked his neck and back, the way forward was clear to him, he had to finish things off, and soon.
A man at the end of the tunnel, the light on his back made his entire figure a siloutee of darkness. " Ruien, been wondering when you'd get here...". He made a stop gesture, and although it was only a gesture your body seemed to hault completely, as if under a magic spell. " Good boy..". From here you could see a little more of the an, he was wearing a long gray overcoat. And had glasses as well. "I'm going to tell you a few things....a few things I uncovered in my research...no doubt thats what you were lookig for yes? notes about my research...or rather...our research...it may have just started with me...but its grown nicely...don't you think?".
" You must have met Tzigone by now...the leader of the Remnants....a bunch of fanatical idiots convinced the world is coming to an end......".
He shook his head. " Theres a few things you need to know...to broaded your horizon....from what I know of you already...you were told t seek something in particular....the Temple of Gaia correct?....How do I know? Well its simple....any of us connected to the Gateway...is told to seek out the temple of Gaia...So I'm going to tell you where it is.....". He laughed. " Its right back where you started....Zanarkand......believe it or not....the spot where you woke up....was only several feet away from the temple itself.....doesn't that strike you as odd?....". The man began to walk away. But then stopped.
" Oh thats right...one more thing you should know....The Solomon's Blight is far more than it would appear to be.....say hello to your brother for me when you see him again...~"
" Speaking of which have you heard about the summoners going missing recently?....".
" You know I've been wondering lately if these symptoms displayed by the unsent in this continent have any links towards the Midgarian experiements thirty years ago with corrupted mako...."
"Impossible....are you?....no....he's dead....you must be this Gaia's version.....odd...never imagined him as the sneak around type....just what are you doing dressed as a scientist?".