What Lies Within

Chapter Fourteen

Rude and Reno stood frozen in the entrance to the warehouse, both of them staring at the two battered SOLDERs with widened eyes. The situation was even more startling because of the depth of the slaughter surrounding the men, hundreds upon hundreds of corpses mutilated by the blade of the Buster Sword. Judging from the amount of gore on the smaller teen, he had been the one that dealt the most damage.

“Holy…Shit…” Reno managed, stepping over a beheaded canine with wide emerald eyes, he and his Dom making their way over to Angeal and Zack. Dark blue mako eyes narrowed impatiently, wondering where the medical team was. Rude crouched from the pair at a respectful distance, the fiery haired teen following his example.

“The medical specialists were detained by a surgery on a Shinra official, they should be here shortly.” Rude looked down at the splattered youth from behind his sunglasses. What had happened here?

“As for the demolition team, you’re looking at them!” Reno said enthusiastically. Rude scowled a little, smacking the long haired Sub in the back of his head, causing the goggles to go flying.

“Ouch! What did I do this time?” Reno complained, rubbing the back of his head. The bald headed Turk sighed and looked at Angeal pointedly, and then to Zack. The green eyes blinked and Reno smiled sheepishly.

“I’m sorry for being an ass, Angeal. How is Zack?” The Sub questioned. Rude rolled his dark eyes at the ineloquent wording, but didn’t reprimand the shorter man for the slip this time. Angeal’s frown deepened and he looked down at his slave worriedly.

“He hasn’t woken up…” The long haired SOLDIER muttered, a thumb moving over the youth’s cheek, smearing the blood there. Reno frowned and edged closer with a pensive look while Rude picked up one of the guns.

“This is what they shot you with, correct?” Rude questioned with a scowl. Angeal nodded curtly, glaring at the weapon.

“It should be destroyed. All of it…” Was the growled reply and Reno winced from the sheer fury seething in that deep voice. The larger Turk hummed and then tensed when a Wutain troop shifted to his left, groaning in pain. The fiery haired teen jumped up and pounced on top of the man, wrenching his helmet off and pinning him by his shoulders. Rude stood with the gun in hand and loomed over the man. He appeared close to death and the two Turks intended on getting answers.

“Talk.” Rude demanded. The middle-aged man coughed up blood and scowled up at them.

“Shinra spies! Demons! Murderers! They should be dead… Monsters! The whole lot of you are unnatural!” The Wutai man raved. Reno rolled his eyes.

“Very helpful… What happened here?”

“I wouldn’t tell you even if my life depended on it!” The man gasped, hatred glowing in his dark eyes. Rude cocked the gun and pressed it to the man’s leg.

“What about your soul?” The bald headed Turk questioned. The troop’s eyes widened but Rude merely fired, watching the man gape and his eyes glaze over. Green tendrils seeped from the man’s body for a few moments before fading and the man lay there, still dying but not there as well.

“An Empty Shell… I’ve only heard about the phenomenon, but seeing it makes it worse…” Rude muttered, staring down at the body that breathed and bled but no longer housed the man that had been spitting curses at them. Reno gasped, flinching as he crawled off the man, shaking his head in denial.

“That’s sick, yo…” Angeal frowned, holding Zack closer.

“Erased completely, with no chance at a peaceful afterlife… It was as if you never were. But then…” The SOLDIER looked down at Zack in confusion.

“How did we survive…?” He questioned softly. Rude threw the weapon down and curled a protective arm around Reno, who for once wore a fearful expression that matched his age.

“This place has Shinra security. I’m sure there are cameras in this place that has footage to fill in the blanks for us. We’ll retrieve them to review at the debriefing. The medical team should be here any minute, just hold on and wait.” Rude nodded at Angeal and led his Sub from the scene of massacre, moving aside for a harried looking woman in a white coat to rush in. She paled at the scene and coughed, covering her mouth.

“Oh Gaia… Mmph, are you the patients?” She questioned through her hand. Angeal blinked and nodded, frowning.

“They only sent one?” He asked and the woman clumsily man her way over the bloodied corpses.

“I’m only an examiner, the crew left fifteen minutes after me. Oh dear, is he alright?” The woman gasped, finally spotting the teen through all of the gore. The SOLDIER’s frown deepened.

“It’s your job to find that out.” The woman blushed and gaped.

“Oh… Right! Lay him down on…er…a relatively cleared out space.” Angeal hesitated before laying the teen down gently, gritting his teeth as he reminded himself that this would help Zack. The medical examiner frowned, touching the bullet hole in the youth’s uniform over his heart.

“You’ve Cured him, haven’t you? Yes… That would have taken care of the physical damage and removed him from danger. But judging from the blood he probably needs a transfusion, he’s sickly pale under all that…ugh…” She scowled, brushing what looked like a fragment of an organ from the black spikes.

“Is he going to be okay?” Angeal demanded and the woman lifted her head, blinking and then smiling warmly.

“He’ll be fine. Right now, his body is in trauma and it hit the figurative snooze button to recuperate. Mako can heal a SOLDIER, but the blood will still be needed from the massive amount he lost. Other than that, all I can recommend is more rest and a very thorough bath.” She told him, wrinkling her nose and then pausing, looking around them.

“Did…Did he do all this…?” She questioned softly, returning her eyes to the teen with a saddened look.

“Yes.” Angeal answered shortly, puzzled at the expression. Usually people would shy away or shun someone who caused such destruction, why was she sad?

“He’s so young to be killing things. No one should have to do it, but I suppose it’s necessary during war…” The woman stood and brushed off her white lab coat, frowning at the 1st Class SOLDIER.

“You don’t look bad off at all. In fact, you look perfectly healthy! Look after him, hear me?” The woman pointed in Angeal’s face, causing the man to blink in surprise and then smirk.

“Yes, ma’am.” He answered and she huffed, walking back over the slain bodies as the team entered. They conversed shortly as the long haired man looked down at the teenager.

“You’re going to be fine, puppy…” Angeal murmured, helping the boy onto a stretcher when the team finally reached them, leaving the massacre behind.


As the helicopter took off in Midgar’s direction, the weapon’s factory ignited and exploded, going up into flames, small spurts of fireworks shooting off from the blaze. Reno grinned, tossing the surveillance tape up and down.

“Aww, you made it flashy just for me, didn’t you?” The teen grinned when Rude let the barest of smirks touch his expression.

To be continued...