Monday, July 19, 2004

Chapter twelve.
(This chapter is Rated T for teen, due to violence, blood and gore...)

X staggered down the hallway and into his office, apparently oblivious to the apprehension on the faces of the co-workers who crossed paths with him along the way. Once there, he picked up the phone, dialing Wesley’s number.

“Yes?” Wesley responded.

“I just had a meeting with the president, and he requests that you quarantine the specimens until further notice,” X spoke gruffly. “Furthermore, he will send the order for all research laboratories to be shut down.”

“What? But-”

At this point, X hung up the phone. His gaze shifted down to his bleeding midsection, and he unbuttoned his bloody shirt and observed the wound absent-mindedly. The burning sensation had subsided, and it had already begun to heal. However, many other unfamiliar scars zigzagged across his chest, weaving a tale of a battle fought and lost many years ago. The intricate fragments of his shattered memory were falling back into place.

He glanced up on the wall, where a sheathed masamune was on display. As he grasped the hilt firmly in his hands, more memories of his previous life as the great Sephiroth were triggered off in his mind. His thoughts shifted to the innocent men, women, and children who had fallen to this deadly blade. He remembered the countless lives he destroyed single-handedly.

Above all, he remembered the insane thrill of watching them die.

A sharp rap on the door interrupted his swarming train of thought. His secretary, a petite woman by the name of Paula, marched into his office with a male paramedic at her heels.

“Are you alright, sir?” she asked shakily. “What happened?”

“Go away, Paula,” he said grimly.

But Paula continued to press on. “Sir, you’re hurt. If you don’t let the paramedic take care of you, you could bleed to death.”

X unsheathed his masamune and swiveled around, approaching them slowly. Once within feet of the paramedic, he swung his sword with effortless precision. Paula gasped and closed her eyes. When she reopened them, she found herself staring in horror at a void where the paramedic’s head used to be. Blood was splattered on the wall behind him, and his severed head landed at her feet, his eyes still fixed in a glazed stare. She shrieked and backed away, as X admired his blood-drenched blade.

“Isn’t it amazing that it’s still sharp?” X asked, apparently unfazed. “Perhaps its undying thirst for blood has kept it sharp for all these years…”

“You’re a monster…” Paula said shakily.

She tried to make a run for the door, but he caught up with her easily, bringing himself between her and the only exit. She may have been fast, but he was much faster. She screamed and backed away, her widened eyes brimming with tears. As he moved toward her, her frantic screams became disconsolate sobs.

“Please, don’t hurt me!” she pleaded desperately.

But such pleas did not matter to him at this point. As far as he was concerned, her fate had already been decided.

“I’m sorry, Paula,” he said impassively. “You were always too stubborn for your own good. You’re fired.”

With those final words, he brought his sword down on her, and her lifeless body tumbled to the floor. Without another glance at her dead body, he sheathed his masamune and moved on.

+++++++

Sakura’s eyes fluttered open, and she found herself sprawled on the cold floor, facedown. She eased onto her feet, dazed and flustered, and glanced around the room, trying to regain her sense of place. She could remember the loud, blaring alarms that awoke her, and that sickly sweet odor…and then she passed out. It was obvious that, if they had any hopes of escape, their time was now.

The door was locked. She pressed her ears to the wall, and she could hear two sets of footsteps patrolling the corridor. Guards, no doubt. She grasped her staff firmly in one hand, and a Clow card in the other. Muttering a few words of encouragement to herself under her breath, she tossed her chosen Clow card a few feet ahead of her and twirled her staff above her head, bringing it down on the suspended card.

“The Windy! Release and Dispel!”

Her chant broke the still silence of the room, alerting the guards. She stared at the card in wonder as waves spread out around the point at which her staff had struck, like ripples in a still pond. A blast of air with the strength of a cyclone struck the door, tearing it off its aged hinges. The guards outside her room were taken by surprise, and were sent airborne before they hit the floor, a few meters away. Sakura relieved them of their keycards, and hurried to Ryudo’s room. He was seated on the bed, obviously awakened by the ruckus Sakura had made on the corridor.

“Ryudo, get the others!” Sakura instructed hastily, tossing him the keycards. He hurried down the corridor, and returned with only Tidus and Darksoul.

“Cloud and the others are gone,” he said, somewhat distressed.

His words were cut short when an alarm began to resound deafeningly overhead. “Code Nine alert. Prepare for evacuation. Total lockdown shall commence in five minutes,” the intercom blared lethargically.

A frail figure appeared at the end of the hallway, and began staggering toward them until her face finally came into view. Although her uniform was torn and bloodied, and her body broken and ridden with bleeding gashes, those emerald green eyes and that head of ginger hair were a dead giveaway.

She had reached halfway down the corridor when she collapsed, and Ryudo immediately rushed to her side. “Lucia? What happened?” he asked urgently.

“It’s Xenos, Agent X," she explained. "He’s lost his mind. We tried our best to stop him, but I was the only one who escaped. All I remember was the flash of his blade, and those glowing eyes." She paused for a moment, resting her head against him. "I’m so sorry, Ryudo. I lied to you about everything. I’m not who I said I was, and-”

“-I know, Lucia,” Ryudo interjected impatiently, pulling away slightly. “There’s no time for than now. How do you stop the lockdown sequence?”

Lucia pulled a keycard out of her shirt pocket and handed it to him. “You have to get to the control panel on the fourth floor. Use this keycard to gain access. Once there, go to the central computer and type the password ‘Greene’. That should stop the lockdown sequence.”

“I see,” Ryudo muttered musingly, rising to his feet. “Okay, here’s the plan. Tidus and I will take create a diversion for Xenos. Sakura, take this keycard and get to the control room to stop the lockdown. Darksoul, lend me your sword, and get Lucia out of here. Agreed?”

“Agreed,” the others said, in affirmative unanimity.

“All right. We have four minutes.”

Arming themselves and preparing for the worst, the group hastened to the stairway, with the exception of Darksoul, who helped Lucia to get back on her feet. She went over to Ryudo, resting her hand on his shoulder gently.

“Good luck Ryudo, and please be careful,” she muttered genuinely.

Ryudo brushed her hand off his shoulder. Without turning to meet her gaze, he walked away, unmindful of the tears that had welled up in her melancholy eyes, glistening like diamonds in the light as she cried silently.



(Well, that's all for now. The next chapter should be coming soon...)

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