Blurry. It was the best way you could describe the state of your mentality. Your words blurred together with the voices that echoed in the hallows of your head, making ghosts of the thoughts you held onto.
There were lapses in your process, one moment the platoon was busy setting up camp and the next you were unpacking your bag onto the bed within your tent. Everything between the two was nothing you could remember--
As the years passed you began to notice a distinct increase in the lapses of thought, the volume of words in your head and the less coherency you felt. Though you’ve known for years that you were slipping, it didn’t stop the reality that losing yourself to something you couldn’t control frightened you.
The hill to which you sat now was grassy, the trees around the temporary encampment thick but not enough to conceal the sky. You kept watch but not unaccompanied, the familiar presence at your side a relaxing one.
Attachment was not something you favored, but the girl, the cadet, Anna, had grown on you. She seemed to be the only one not disillusioned by your position to notice your sanity was slipping between your fingers faster then you could catch it.
As such your little exercise developed, a way to help you cope--
“ ...Real or not real. It’s sunset, the stars are showing already but it smells like rain in the wind. There are six tents in the camp. ”
NO MATTER WHAT he tried, no matter whom he spoke to, it seemed that the collective heads of Shinra were simply content to wear their blindfolds and ignore potential threats. Zack supposed it could be some excess paranoia on his part, but despite it, he couldn't simply relax when the threat was this high. This entire ball was a disaster waiting to happen, and no amount of soothing was going to get him to think otherwise.
Since he couldn't prevent disaster, he might as well try to prepare for it, he supposed. Lessen the damage, if necessary. Since nobody would fucking listen to him, it was on his shoulders.
He was being forced to attend the ball, and his sword was not invited. So materia would have to do, even though he much preferred the weight of his blade. And he was supposed to bring a date along, so -- while he would prefer not to get anyone else involved with this travesty -- he understood he could use this to his advantage too.
Unfortunately for Anna, that meant she had Zack approaching her as she was getting off duty. He fell into step beside her as she walked, bringing out his friendliest grin. She was not going to be happy about this, he had a suspicion.
“Heeeey, Anna. You got a minute?” he asked cheerfully.
The first thing that the red haired Turk had done after managing to bluff his way out of the infirmary by reassuring them that he had not shown any symptoms and that he was fine had been to flee his temporary shelter and slink into the city to find a place to drink. It had been three days, the bruising had yet to make an appearance, but Reno was wise enough to know he might be living on borrowed time.
The Goblin was crowded that night as he plopped himself down on a barstool. His head pounded, though he hadn’t made much of it yet. Reno got headaches on occasion anyway,stress always gave him one. But the tickle in his throat the sudden flash of heat, and the cough that followed that tickle that sent him toppling off the stool was something not that usual.
It felt as if the skin of his back was being seared off and the sudden sensation of thick sludge coming up from his lungs and something that felt like blood flooding his throat and leaving him feeling as if he was drowning left his head spinning and terror making his hart feel like it was beating its way out of his chest.
He could hear the mutters of the word stigma from multiple people in the bar, some of them suggesting shooting him and burning his corpse and some feeling sorry for him just as the door opened. But even half blind with pain he knew those footstep.
“Anna, don’t touch me!” he croaked out. “I got it.”
It was cold. So cold that the part of Elena’s brain that would usually be swearing up a storm was frozen and no longer functioning. Instead she was bundled up in three sweaters, her coat, two scarves, earmuffs and gloves, and clutching a cup of coffee like it was a lifeline. She wondered if her hand would survive away from the heat of her travel mug long enough to send Tseng a text requesting that it be put in her employee file to never send her to the frigid dark north ever again, ever.
There was an impressive number of Shira employees out and about, some even seeming to enjoy the cold, throwing snowballs or talking about snowboarding, but Elena was not here to play. She stomped into the local inn, grumpily shaking snow out of her hair and boots and thanks Ifrit’s shaggy dick for the crackling fireplace against the wall as she scanned the room.
“Alright, it’s me, your friendly Turkcicle babysitter. Can everyone I’m supposed to keep an eye on just line up in front of me? It’s too damn cold for me to pretend to be sneaky and go tracking anyone down out in the subzero wilderness so I will pay for all your hot beverage needs if you just stay inside.”
Zack felt like he was underwater. He could hear distant sounds--yelling? Crashing, maybe?--but they were distant and vague, like they weren't even real. Distorted, even. Only on one side.
He tried to move. It didn't work. He couldn't remember where he was. His eyes didn't want to parse out what he was seeing. Vague, muddled shapes.
“Cloud?”
His voice sounded strange. His right ear wasn't picking up anything, and his left was tinny and vague. He couldn't hear properly. That meant those sounds were a lot closer than he had thought.
Adrenaline dulled the sharp throb that had formed in his head, and he forced himself upright. His vision swam, and the spectrum of his vision didn't seem wide enough. He put a hand over his right eye. He couldn't see it. His fingers encountered something sharp when he touched his face. Glass.
As he got his bearings, he remembered what had happened. The bomber who had managed to get up to the SOLDIER floor, the hand on the switch, Cloud pushing his way in front of Zack, flying backwards through the glass partition, into the far wall--
“Cloud??”
Nothing. Fighting past the nausea roiling through his gut, he forced himself to look around. He nearly passed out again, the vertigo pulsing over him. But he had to find Cloud. If the idiot had gotten himself killed--
Cloud was lying a few feet away, on his side in a pool of blood, very much unmoving. Zack's right leg didn't seem to want to work, he had definitely broken a few ribs, and his left arm was burned and raw, causing a screaming pain every time he moved it, but he didn't care. He dragged himself to Cloud's side, rolling him on his back.
The blond was had a number of burns and cuts from the shrapnel, including the one that was responsible for most of the blood on the floor around him, a large vertical cut on his chest, just below his ribcage. There was blood leaking from his ears and nose. But what caught Zack's attention first was the massive wound on the side of Cloud's head.
He quickly checked Cloud's pulse and breathed a small sigh of relief when he found it. It was faltering and weak, but it was there. Next, he had to do something about the bleeding. He ripped Cloud's ruined top off and ripped it in half. One half was used to cover the cut, tied as tight as he dared. The glass was still inside, but Zack didn't dare trying to dig it out and risk doing more damage. The other half of Cloud's shirt went to wrapping the head wound.
It was the best he could do right now. The distant crashing sounds probably meant more explosions. Whatever terrorists were behind this, they were good enough to get someone all the way up to the SOLDIER floor. It wouldn't be an isolated attack. That meant they had to get out of here.
Zack did a quick check of his injuries. His head was swimming badly and he was nauseated, indicating some sort of a concussion. He had glass shrapnel all over his right side and front, but most of it was shallow. He had some deeper cuts on his right thigh. He couldn't see out of his right eye. He couldn't hear out of his right ear and barely out of his left. He had burns down his left side. He had some broken ribs. His right leg...oh, his knee was not bending the proper way. That would explain that.
Okay, so walking was out. Crawling was not.
“Sorry, buddy, this is going to suck,” Zack declared. Moving his sword out of the way, he pulled Cloud's arms around his shoulders, tugging Cloud's chest to his back and leaning forward. And then he began the slow crawl toward the stairwell. The perpetrators could still be inside, so he dragged his sword along in the hand that wasn't holding Cloud on his back. Once they got to the stairs, maybe he could use the sword as a crutch or something.
Each inch was an agonizing fight, and Zack's bloody face was soaked also with sweat by the time they made it to the stairwell, a good twenty minutes later. His forearms were scored with new cuts from the glass all over the floor. Cloud, in this entire time, had not made a sound.
After wrestling with the door for a moment, he finally got it open and peered into the stairwell. The walls were cracked. Some of the stairs were damaged or missing, and others were blocked with rubble.
Zack rested his forehead on his arm for a moment, closing his good eye.
She didn’t look very intimidating with the rifle strapped to her back, but it was doing a great job keeping the rocks from hitting her. The damage to the case was minimal, and it was annoying. Anna would make note to take the back way when she left tonight.
She saw Kathy in front of her as she approached. She saw the rock and was too late to act. But immediately moved to the secretaries side with the case blocking for both of them. She took her pistol out and it caused some of the protesters to back away. Becoming wary of the cadet’s weapon.
“Stay close… I’ve got you.” Anna muttered.
She didn’t bother rubbing the sore spot on her shoulder, she’d rather keep a tight grip on her satchel. There were important papers in there. Why didn’t they giver her the escort she had asked for?
Hearing brisk footsteps made her glance back, and she let out a sigh of relief. It was the sniper. Anna? Either way her eyes widen when she brandished her rifle at the protesters, wincing a bit. Wouldn’t that make things worse? Not that she wasn’t thankful...it’s just that it would make them look guilty...-er.
The whole city was like an overturned anthill, everyone swarming the streets, biting and stinging at anything that moved. What a mess.
Elena wondered what the company was going to do about this. At the rate things were escalating, waiting it out until the general public lost interest might not be an option. Especially if someone added fuel to fire by putting a scapegoat out there for the crowd to tear to shreds. Well the wrong scapegoat. A well-chosen one could give the hungry masses something to chew on without doing much damage to Shinra, but in the meantime they needed to make they knew everything they needed to know about their current at-risk employees.
Elena had two people to track down today--luckily she knew both their schedules, and could corner them quickly. The faster she spoke to them and got back to her boss, the sooner they could figure out their next move.
“Morning!” She waved at the first she found. “I hope I didn’t catch you when you’re busy, but it’ll just be a bit. I’ve a few things to confirm before I can let you go about your day in--well, perhaps not ‘peace,’ considering the traffic out there.”
