Cloud returned to the mansion, it was already night. He had to take the long way to make sure whenever the trackers caught sight of him again; they were far from the girls' location. The mansion looked strange. The lights were off, he could have assumed the power is gone.
Though that didn't make sense since the streetlights were still on, and a few lights from windows of the neighboring houses were visible. Something was off, but there wasn't any strange noise, not from anywhere.
He entered the mansion, calling out, "Alice?"
'...'
The house was dark, quiet. Eerily so. There wasn't any strange scent nor any smoke. It didn't smell like a fire.
The lights didn't even flicker when he tried to turn the switch. He stood still, feeling something off. He glanced towards the couch, grabbing the pole from behind.
Abruptly, the lights came back. His eyes fell on the woman wearing a red dress, "Alice?"
"Who are you...?" The woman remained confused, "I saw you in a picture...wedding picture?"
'Great. What happened to her. Mansion's defences? Then,' he reached out, "Come to me. We are about to have guests."
She hastened her steps, taking his hand, falling in his arms, "What is going on? I don't remember anything."
He kissed her lips, pushing his aura inside of her, sending it right to her brain. Her cheeks turned red from the sudden shock, she did remember something. Rather, her body did, especially when he pulled his lips away, asking, "remember anything?"
"You are great in bed?" She guessed.
"Not that part," Cloud pushed her to the couch, "Stay there. Hide."
"Why?" she asked when white lights came from outside the out, bright, painful to look at and windows broke, people had swung in the mansion. They landed on their feet, scanning, pointing guns at them.
Cloud tensed up. The visage of a silver-haired man appeared in front of him. His senses became sharper, he could see everything they were doing in slow-motion, raising their guns to point at him, know their trajectory. He swung the pole, slapping it out of the man's hand, when the other one covered in tactical great shot at him.
He managed to dodge it, having predicted the trajectory. A notification popped up in front of his eyes.
[Your Synchronisation with Sephiroth has increased]
He put his strength in his legs, seeing Zack's image leaping. He lept forward, causing another notification to pop up.
[Your Synchronisation with Zack has increased]
He swiped the pole upwards, disarming the second guard, who gun flew in the air. He saw Angeal and Genesis in the same place, overlapping. He put all the weight on left leg to kick the third one, like Angeal, and catching the gun coming down from the air and shooting the fourth, who entered from the same window as the third, following Genesis's arm.
[Your Synchronisation with Genesis has increased]
[Your Synchronisation with Angeal has increased]
"Don't move or I shoot your head off," he pointed at the second one he knocked back, a woman likely. The fourth one nearly stumbled with the gun, so he might have been an engineer.
"Stop, we are on the same side," another one in full tactical gear was walking towards them with ease when Cloud fired his gun five times, each time chipping on the arm or leg of the Agent. Not even a flesh wound, only his clothes, but it was enough to scare them all.
The first and third to jump in tried to reach for a spare gun but he shot it out of their hands, and then shot the one second, tried to reach, "Knock next time. Or I won't miss."
The leader, who nearly had five more holes in his body raised his arms, "There is no need for this. We were only following protocols."
Cloud bend down to pick up the gun on the floor and shot at the leader again.
BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG
"OK! OK! WE WERE MAKING AN ENTRANCE!!"
Cloud stopped, throwing the gun at his feet, "and I was making a point. Do not."
"Point taken," the one in charge of the unit showed his palms, slowly removing his helmet. He narrowed his eyes, stopping his Agents from attacking Cloud in the back, "We were ordered to come here. The Mansion's security has been breached. Where is Alice?"
"She doesn't remember anything," Cloud helped Alice up, who gripped on his arm tightly, "Mansions defences."
"You know about them," the leader sent one of his people to check, who attached a device to a point in the wall. He ran a diagnostic, "he's right. Mansions defences were activated."
An agent raised the gun, pointing at him. Cloud frowned, "Do you want to die?"
"How did an intruder get past you? Unless you worked with them."
"Or I wasn't home," Cloud rolled his eyes. He pointed at the corridor, "Over there and take a right."
"What?"
"You might find an ointment for your pride in the bathroom," Cloud gave her a mocking look. This caused even more tension in the group.
"You bastard! You think I won't kill you!"
"Rain, stop!"
"You'll die before you can," Cloud started walked towards her when he felt Alice tugging on his arm. He had no choice but to stop.
"I'll fucking..."
"Rain, stop. Goddamn it," the agent pointed at Cloud, "You too, stop pushing her. Where were you?"
"I had business in the city."
"You weren't supposed to leave."
"Sure. I did, and this happened," Cloud didn't shrink, "My bad. Moving on. Why did you attack us?"
"I said before Orders."
"Don't play with me. What order?"
"Procedure Three."
'Securing Asset...?' Cloud glanced towards Alice, shaking his head, 'his intention is towards Alice? I can't sense it. A crush? No, he doesn't know himself why.'
"Alright, your turn. Anything you want to ask?"
"Yeah, like why did you attack us?!" Chad was trying to free himself. Rain glared at him for speaking out of turn and he shrunk where he sat.
"You should have knocked."
"That's no reason! We thought there were hostiles!"
"Now you know there won't be any as long as I am here," Cloud shrugged, "Knock next time."
"Alright. We can talk about this later. Prepare to Enter the Hive. Cloud, you are coming with us."
"Did you bring weapons?"
James Shade, call-sign One nodded to him, then at Chad and Rain, "take them there."
Cloud watched the secret door open in the wall, sighing, 'hopefully, this leads to me some clues.'
"Raise you hands!"
The lot of them looked towards the door. There was a man holding the gun. Cloud turned away from him, "all yours."
.
.
.
Looking Glass House, it was the mansion that Alice and Cloud were protecting. It had a hidden pathway to a lab under the grounds.
Umbrella Corporation did not stop there, they created a whole station with a train running between here and the actual facility. It was massive. They were riding a train to the Hive, the secret lab where they were doing their research. Cloud armed himself with a few guns. They didn't have a sword, only a few long knives. The largest and only was the size of his forearm, which he picked.
"Are you remembering anything," he leaned against the pole, his arm around Alice's waist, tightly wrapped against it.
"Not much," she stared at her finger, there was a ring on it, their marriage ring. She liked being in his arm, it made her feel safe, especially with everyone on the train alert, carrying dangerous weapons. There was also an officer handcuffed and stuffed to the door. That wasn't the end of the problem, when they entered the train, they found another guy hidden in the compartment, same as her, with no memories.
"Then there is the Hive," Alice looked towards the technician, Kaplan. He explained what Hive was to her. Underneath the city, a secret laboratory, large enough to house 500 scientists and technicians who lived there. They were under constant surveillance, and their research remained classified.
Soon the train stopped, and a part of them took tools to open a sealed door. The machine whirred and hissed and lights flashed in the distance while they waited here. She couldn't help ask Cloud, "you are the only one here not nervous."
"Do they look nervous to you?" Cloud gestured with his chin at James's team.
"Not nervous. Tense," Alice whispered.
"To me too," Cloud could sense their emotion. They were tense, but they also had the confidence, 'they have a plan they are sure of...they have more intelligence on the subject than they are letting on.'
"Sir, we have opened the door," the woman with black hair and cold attitude reported to James.
"Let's go."
They followed the team, going inside the cold-looking office, there were wallpapers on the windows to show a scenery of the city, to make it feel like they were outside, only to fail terribly at that.
"JD, check the elevator." James ordered. Though, soon, they ran into a problem. The Elevators had crashed and weren't operational anymore.
It left them with one option, "We are taking the stairs. Be on high alert."
"Against what exactly, pen pushers?" Cloud looked at him in half-bemusement.
"Red Queen, state-of-the art Artificial Intelligence."
"Artificial Intelligence? This place has Artificial Intelligence?" Cloud questioned with mild surprise, trying to not let the real shock surface, 'now everything makes sense. Why Shelke and Jessie couldn't get in. Artificial Intelligence...'
"Shit. Does it have control over this place?"
"It controls everything. On that, Kaplan?" James questioned his tech guy who had been diving into the computers here.
"Red Queen has locked onto us. She knows we are here."
"You people are stupid," Cloud stopped in front of the stairs, "Of course she knows we are here. There are cameras everywhere. If they were able to make an Artificial Intelligence then they must have made embedded camera's so she could keep an eye on everyone and collect data. You want to go against a Lab, fitted with Artificial Intelligence and who knows what security measures at her disposable with just this stuff? You need a tank to tear all down."
'Artificial Intelligence or these labs weren't a problem for SOLDIER since they could destroy the whole facility, erasing the playground for the AI to do anything. Just normal humans going against it, that's death sentence. You need all the luck in the world to survive that.'
"We have a plan. We are here to shut it down," James gripped his gun. He wanted to force him to walk, but he knew if he tried he'd be death. It was his years of experience. It told him he wasn't some punk who knew how to fight, no, it was something far worse.
"You are crazy...I don't have a death wish," Cloud looked at the two citizens, and then Alice, "you three. Come with me. We are leaving."
"You can't," James stopped to look at him while his team went on high-alert.
"Why not?" Alice narrowed her eyes, putting her hand on the gun given to her by Cloud. It was an instinct.
"We put a bomb on the door. If we fail the mission, it will blow up Hive," James stared at Cloud, watching if that intimidated the man.
"Oh, then I should help you," Cloud pointed his gun at James, "Are you stupid? Unless you want to commit suicide. You know the code to disable it. You didn't convince me to work with you. All I have to do is put you down, torture you, and get you to tell me how to disable it."
"I have had enough of you!" JD pointed his gun at Cloud, who shot him before JD could even react, making the man freeze up from the stinging sensation on his cheek.
"You!"
"Don't!" One of the citizen's, the cop pulled a gun on them. He had no idea how, but the handcuffs opened and then Cloud slid him a gun. He had only acted like he was cuffed.
Alice raised her gun too. With both sides pointing guns at the other, James tried to talk ceasefire, "Listen. WE can shoot it out and you might make it out alive. What about them? What about her?"
"You are on a suicide mission. Better for them to die now than later."
"Is that what you think?" James asked the two men who had nothing to do with this. The man with a gap in his memories shook his head, "I don't know...I don't think it's safe down there."
"You, Mr Matt Addison?"
Cloud was focused on James when he noticed a change in Matt's emotion. There was a protective desire, guilt, regret, and need to go into Hive, love even. He dived too deep in Matt's emotions, his reaction was a little slow but it was still fast enough. His gun pointed at Matt's head, who pointed the weapon at him, while James took the chance to set his aim at Alice, "Enough! We don't have the time for this."
Cloud breathed out, letting go of the trigger, "Fine."
'This is stupid.'
"Should I tie him up," Rain asked. She didn't have the strength to wrestle with Cloud. She had confidence in her training, but this guy was out of the world, which she begrudgingly accepted.
Yet she still was as determined as ever. He looked at Matt and the others before rolling his eyes and went down the stairs with a grumble, following James's team. Before reaching the end, Rain Ocampo pulled him towards her, "No. You stay in the back."
"Sorry," Alice whispered, her gun was taken away. Even if she had it, she wasn't sure she had the courage to pull the trigger.
"It's fine," he calmly said, looking back at Jame's team. He could have taken them out in that instance, 'my Aura is running low...surprisingly...this place has Aura of Death...mass murder? Unwillingness to die? Regrets, last wishes, fear lingering in the air. It's deeper inside. Like the nest of a creature...like in Nibelheim Reactor...'
"There it is! Sir!" JD rushed towards the elevator. They finally were in the Hive, the basement lab underneath. There wasn't a single light here. Everything was dark.
Just up ahead were the remains of an elevator that was dangling from the ceiling. Its remains were sticking out and bent at odd angles and cables and torn metal hung from the opening, dangling in the air while they swayed from the air, moving around from the cold winds entering the hall through the door. The temperature fell the moment they were in the basement.
Beyond them were tanks filled with yellow water, leaking from holes, likely made by bullets. Cloud stopped in front of them, staring inside, he could sense a hunger coming from inside. It was strange. It wasn't leftover vestiges of strong emotions and intents because of the incident that happened here. It had a source.
He didn't get the chance to fully explore when Rain pointed her gun at him, pushing him to go forward, "Come on, we are talking an alternate route."
"Stop," Cloud squinted his eyes, seeing a body float forward. Soon, it came into their sights. A body of a scientist, dead, floating in the yellow water.
"Damn it! What is that!" the guy with memory loss like Alice got scared seeing the thing abruptly float to the surface like a fish. He backed away, much like others.
"What happened here?" Matt demanded to know.
James hesitated, "Five hours ago. Red Queen went on a rampage and killed everyone before sealing the facility. We are here to shut her down and find the reason behind it. Let's move."
"Stay," Cloud stopped them. He rubbed his closed eyelids, trying to think. There was something bothering him, this thing had hunger. It was dead, it was supposed to be dead.
[Your Synchronisation with Genesis has passed a certain threshold.]
"Cloud."
Cloud snapped his eyes open, hearing the voice in his head. His pupil trembled, seeing the man with a red coat and a book walk in the yellow water, standing beside the body, 'Genesis...'
"Look," Genesis gestured him to look at the body and he did, sensing its hunger rise.
Rain tried to push him, "You are slowing us down! Let's go! Or I will force you to!"
"Wait," Cloud placed his palm on the tank, putting his aura inside the body, and it reacted. It snapped its eyes open and screamed underwater.
"Wh..." Rain didn't get a chance to finish as Cloud grabbed Rain's head and slammed it into the glass while pulling her gun from her head. He rotated the gun against his palm, using Rain to shield himself from one side, shooting the guns out of Chad and Jad's hands, pointing at James, who was ready to shoot him, "Do not make me kill you. Alice, take his gun."
"Me..." Alice looked around her, everyone had come to a stop. She first went to take JD and Chad's gun before moving towards James, very slowly.
"We are doing this again?" James frowned. He was tired of these interruptions.
"Don't be a fool. I heard that Umbrella was experimenting with BOWs, to think they were doing that right under our nose," Cloud pointed it at James's head, warning him against any movement.
"BOWs?" Medic, who was staying back for this instance, stopped when her hand was about to reach the gun.
"Bio-Organic Weapons," JD tried to tell her.
"I know that. This is...shit," Medic came to a realisation, "he's right. We need to retreat."
"Medic," James was counting on her to shoot Cloud. He glared at her with a big frown.
"W-What do you mean?" Matt gripped the gun nervously. Cloud wasn't even looking at him, but he felt if he moved then Cloud would shoot him.
"If this is some kind of virus, then it explains why Red Queen did what she did. She didn't go rogue. She killed everyone inside to keep the virus in and sealed this place," Medic frowned, "if we shut her down then we might get infected. This is not something we can deal with. We need protective great and tons of more people to make sure the virus doesn't get out."
"Not just that. Look in the tank," Cloud tapped on the glass with his left hand, bringing their attention towards the woman inside, trying to hit the tank but the water kept her from gathering any strength.
"She's dead and moving. You said there are 500 people in here. You try to shut down an AI who is keeping these things trapped here. What happens? In the best scenario, you succeed. A slightly less good scenario," Genesis stood behind Cloud, talking to them, and Cloud seemed to be repeating what he was saying word to word. Or in this moment, Cloud was thinking exactly like Genesis would. Either of them was possible. Even Cloud wasn't sure which was which.
"She goes to sleep and all gates open."
"Worse scenario, the gates don't open, but she opens them to keep us in because her priority is to keep the virus in. Don't bullshit me by telling me you can shut down an AI faster than AI can think. In these two cases, we would face 500 of these monsters who are dead but still walking. You are asking everyone here to go against AI, it's defence services and if we are lucky, we get to face 500 of Walking Dead."
"And if we make it back, by the luck of God, and one of your engineers who know how to remove the bomb dies or all you die but me. I'll be dead because I can't remove the bomb. Remind me again, how do I survive this? Or I kill you all first and bet on Red Queen to help me escape."
"When he puts it like that," Kaplan was the first to agree with him.
"Sir, I don't mind dying," Medic held the gun, "If you order me. I will follow orders. But suicide? Are you sure?"
James breathed in and out. He let the gun go, "No. We needed to know why Red Queen went rogue. We know now. Let's retreat."
Cloud put the gun down, seeing James walk past him. He looked at him and the rest of the people here, watching his aura inside of their body, filled with a desire to live. It was small, but it was enough. He grabbed his head, Genesis's voice was only getting louder in his head.
"That's right. You can sense every emotion they are feeling right now. Their life, fear, sense of duty, their wish to live, all coming in a rush. To them, there was something far stronger. Curiosity."
Genesis grabbed him by his shoulders, bringing his head near his neck, whispering in his ear, "Their lives will start pouring into you. You don't have enough aura to quash it all. Soon, you won't be able to control it. Jenova."
'Go away,' Cloud blasted his aura around him, forcing Genesis to disappear. He held his head, breathing heavily when Alice gripped his other palm, supporting him.
"Cloud?"
"I am fine..." he paused, "One, was it? Tell me about your plan."
.
.
.
Camelot, Throne Room,
"Pacing around won't help, Augustus," King Aurum opened his blue eyes, "You look awfully worried."
"We lack personals. Everyone of the newly trained Once Human went on the Expedition to the Phase 3 World. The last of the few we had, we sent with Eve. Now we don't even have any to send them support," Augustus had made his mission to send reinforcement to Eve, Tifa, Cloud and Aerith, even if it meant not letting King hold the court.
"Just go conquer a world then," Aurum turned to his side, lying on the throne, until he was on his stomach, his hand hanging by the throne. He didn't care a bit about his image.
"Right, and 33 Heavens will stay silent if we do that," Augustus closed his eyes. 33 Heavens protected the mortal worlds in their own Universe. Let alone these other Universes connected to their way through the portal. Right now, the Six God Slayers were holding the portals at bay, along with Abyss and 33 Heavens themselves. They were stretched far too thin.
It made sense to him why King was eager to train Cloud, who had the same potential as him. 33 Heavens didn't want numerous casualties. Hence, they were waiting and watching, but if they tried to interfere too much with these worlds, like conquering them directly, "they'll make a move. Worse, some of the God Slayers might not agree to hold them back when we are profiting."
"By some you mean Ashwood."
"He is going to ask for his share sooner or later," Augustus said.
"Not sooner," Aurum closed his eyes, "Will you stop pacing around. Everything will work out."
"Explain to me how," Augustus watched him in frustration, "You say you have everything planned. How?"
"Auggie," Aurum sat up. He pointed his finger forward, and a chessboard appeared in between them, "You know what this is?"
"Chess?"
"No. The Black is the Worlds I put together. White are our people. Now. If we keep their abilities in mind, and the Worlds Fate. Do you know what that means?"
"What?"
"That this is not how it starts. This is not what board look likes," Aurum showed a board, pieces that had been used and left, a game in the middle, "this is what the initial board looks. Now, if you know Cloud's powers, Tifa's, Aerith's, and Eve's, then what do you get?"
"What do I get?"
"We get Cloud, Eve, Tifa and Aerith losing their control. There are two centres of Fate. You know what lies at the Centre of Fates, talented individuals, people born with strong destinies. There is bound to be someone with a strong enough desire to make them lose control. You know what that leads to? Cloud having a crisis."
"Those who have power and lose it. Only they know its true value, and the strong wish to have that power again. To achieve that, they would go to second Fate point, hoping it would have the solution they were there for in the first place. They went there because Cloud's aura was becoming poisonous. Right now, he needs to learn how to control his aura. For that, he needs aura, but not from the person who makes him lose control. Where will you find Aura but at the centres of Fate?"
"Though that side is a world with a powerful company doing shady experiments. Do you know what that leads to?"
"Lingering aura," Augustus frowned, "That's dangerous. That's aura shouldn't be absorbed unless you have a very strong will... how could you?"
"Are you forgetting. I brought that world and joined it with another. I know everything about it. Why could I not do that?"
"You are expecting Cloud to do the stupidest thing in the world for your plan to work!"
"Stupidest? Did you warn him against it?" Aurum knowingly smirked.
"Warm him..." Augustus remained stunned.
"Did you not? Why? Because it's the most natural thing for us, Demons? We live long. Not all creatures do so. Everyone has that experience when our pet died and we absorbed their lingering aura and come face to face with the side effects? It's so common, to the point one doesn't even think about teaching this. Why would they, everyone has gone through this, everyone knows this. Do not absorb the lingering aura of the dead, the regrets, they are so strong that they would chew on your mind."
"Especially a mind that is deteriorating enough to hear voices because of encroachment from Jenova," Aurum rubbed his chin, "I don't think Cloud has long. Soon. He'd stand at the crossroads."
"What then?" Augustus narrowed his eyes, "what will become of him? Once he makes that choice?"
"Who knows. My goal is to make him stand at those crossroads. What he makes of it is on him."
"It won't happen," Augustus turned and left the room in haste, leaving behind a sighing King.
"And what are you going to do, Augustus," Aurum lay back down the throne, closing his eyes, "Send you blood with this as a memory across the World? To Cloud so he could read your memory and be warned of this incident? Man, ever since Eve's accident, you have become so predictable. Fear has made you obvious."
"Why do villains become dumb when they change sides?"
"Are you calling him a villain and yourself a good person?"
Aurum glanced towards the woman who made the world's colour fade literally. The only colour around him were the hair that burned like sunlight flowing in the air, her orange eyes carrying the sun's fire met his, "if I am not a good person, who is?"
"Maybe the you from before. Now, I can't say," the woman looked in the direction of the world Eve was in, "That creature. It is good, not the same as you. Why are you so keen about it?"
"It is not about what it is now. What it can be," King closed his eyes, "patience...I lack it."
"Pitiful would be the person who takes you for your word."
Aurum smugly smirked, "Do you think Jenova has convinced Cloud to resurrect it?"
"Should have happened."
"Right? I think so too."
.
.
.
"Are you planning on entering alone," Alice stood by the flooded area, watching Cloud, who was dazedly standing in the front of the glass door of the flooded, sealed room. The rest had gone back to the main door to remove the bomb.
"Yeah..." Cloud stared at his palm, hearing the voice in his ear. He looked up, seeing the man with long silver hair behind him, whispering.
"Go on Cloud. Give that thing your blood. With that, you will be able to control it and know what went wrong here. Everything you need to take Umbrella down will be in your grasp."
"Yeah, Cloud," Zack appeared in front of him, grinning, "Let's solve this problem and go back to others. Just put your blood in it."
"Ok..." Cloud sharpened his aura on his thumb. He used it to put a cut on his first finger, covering his blood in aura to send in through the hole. The blood went inside the walking dead, which he felt a connection with, able to control it.
"I'll wait a little longer," Cloud turned away from it, walking towards Alice, "let's go."