Final Fantasy VII: Lifestream - Book 2: Aftermath

TWENTY-SIX

"Goddamn Shinra bastards!" Barret spat, pounding his fist against the stair he was sitting on. "The more I hear, the more I hate 'em! I ain't even got the words for it. Makin' monsters..."

I didn't blame him. What I'd seen in the Nibel reactor that day had horrified me, finding out what Shinra was doing. And in the shadow of my own hometown, no less. Who had those men been before Hojo had twisted them into monsters? I didn't know, but they hadn't deserved to suffer a fate like that, no matter what they might've done. Nobody did. Hojo was gonna have a lot to answer for.

"Son of a bitch..." Biggs swore.

Jessie's eyes narrowed as she sat next to me. "I swear, nothing those assholes do surprises me anymore. Especially after what I saw up in the Science Division before I left. But still..."

Marissa swallowed. "Wow... I can't believe it..."

"I never even imagined the reactor held such a terrible secret," Tifa murmured. "I'm almost glad I didn't go in there..."

Lena frowned. "I wonder..."

"What is it, Lena?" Aerith asked, glancing at her.

"Over the last few months, before the plate came down, there were a lot of monster attacks," she said. "More than usual. They just kept on coming, no matter how many we killed. Mostly they hit around Sector 7. Isn't that right, Wedge? Lots of eaters..."

He nodded. "Yeah. Cloud and I wiped out bunches on our patrols, and he and Jessie took out a nest a while back. Made a dent, but didn't slow 'em down as much as we'd hoped. So now I'm wondering if maybe they really came from somewhere else."

"Shinra's got unmarked storehouses down here," Lena went on. "It's where the chip for that first bomb was gonna be delivered to by Shinra 'till a friend of mine intercepted it and got it to me. The Vice gang stole it, but luckily Jessie was able to swipe it back from them. Anyway, what Wedge and I are saying is that we think Shinra may have been secretly breeding monsters in those places and setting them loose in the slums. Eaters, wererats, drakes, you name it... between them and the bandits, a lot of people have been hurt or killed."

Wedge reached back and gently took her hand. "Yeah... including you, Lena. I was really scared, but you made it."

"Thanks to you," Lena smiled.

He blushed. "Well, uh... Biggs and Jessie were there, too. When we found you out there in the ruined expressway and saw what happened to you, how hurt you were. Remember?"

She leaned forward and kissed him. "Yeah. But you carried me. All the way to the clinic. You were there for me, Wedge, made me feel safe. I really needed that... and all the times you came to see me when I was sick and hurt... more than you'll ever know."

Wedge gazed fondly at her. "I really love you, Lena."

"Love you, too," she winked.

As Lena sat back on the sofa, her eyes and Jessie's met, then both of them glanced at Elmyra, who returned their gaze with a knowing nod. And I got the feeling that more had happened to Lena than she'd let on, something likely only the three of them knew about. She'd been sick for about a month by the time I'd first arrived in Sector 7, and I hadn't met her until two weeks after that. I hadn't known that she'd been attacked, either, but that did explain how and why she'd been caught in the mako fumes long enough to make her so sick.

"I think you might be right, Lena," I said. "Considering what I saw in the reactor and their experiments in the Science Division, it's a good bet they had a hand in our monster problem."

Biggs nodded. "Could be, but why would they do it?"

"Control," Jessie answered. "To keep us scared and divided. I know they've gotta be involved because... I helped oversee the deployment of the hell houses around Sectors 5 and 6 when I was still in Shinra. Back when I still thought they'd be used to protect people. It's what I'd made them for. My god, I was so naive..."