spira_rp | Midgar Continued...

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Midgar Continued...

Continued from here.

Axel didn't think that the self-given mission was going too badly, all things considered. Nobody in Midgar suspected a thing, that much was clear, not even Aerith. He listened to her, the apprehension and questioning near-disbelief in her voice and actions clear. Despite his desperation to get her and them out of there, he found it to be a fairly understandable response to such a suggestion. It wasn't exactly an easy story to believe. He had to wonder what he would have done or said in her position. Laughed, probably.

As for her question... that was a little more difficult to answer. He glanced at Saix, a disturbingly disguised Saix, at that, and scratched the back of his head.

"Not a lot," he sighed. Way to sound convincing, idiot. "Whatever they're going to do, they intend on blowing all of the reactors. When one went, it destroyed the residential area in the immediate vicinity, right?"

Of course, that wasn't the worst of it. Not this time.

"If they blow all of them ... the support pillars don't stand a chance and neither does anything below the plate."

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Axel, even on the brink of disaster, wasn't sure whether to accept his apology. He tended to be at his best before a would-be tragedy and, instead of forgiving him, he simply nodded. He understood what he was trying to get across -- but that didn't mean he had to accept it without a period of consideration. Consideration he would give it if they got through this alive.

Instead, he addressed his change of subject and found himself unable to disagree. "Yeah, ditto. At this point, y'think it'll matter if we drop the disguise?" He looked down at his clothing and shape halfway between unhappiness and amusement. He shrugged and let the jutsu drop before getting Saix's answer.

Saix responded in kind, dropping the jutsu with silent relief and as much dignity as could be mustered when he'd just spent the last few hours parading as a girl. It was not a few hours he wished to remember.

Although it would be nice to get the chance.

At the front of the church, and holding most of the attention, Aerith was still praying.

It started to rain.

Axel didn't miss the rain. It must have been one of the few places beneath the plate that rain could actually penetrate. A fortuitous gap in the metal above and a hole in the roof allowed the water to fall into the church. He, of all the people in the building, was alone in knowing this fact.

At least, that was the case until a pair of familiar blue suit-clad people accompanied by a third, unknown person entered. Axel knew that they knew about the gap above. He tensed instantly at the sight of them. A tall, bald man, blonde woman and a scruffy, red-haired ruffian. Huh. His hair wasn't red last time... he allowed himself a smirk, despite his tightened stance.

Saix noticed the shift in Axel's demeanour and turned his attention towards the doorway, and the visitors. They were, unfortunately, familiar.

"Seems I didn't take the long enough route," he grumbled, shifting his own stance, but not calling on a weapon yet. He wasn't in girl form any more, but the scar was probably distinctive enough to give people pause.

"Perhaps I'll get my fight after all."

As if to interrupt there was a noise from above, like rumbling thunder, punctuated by the squeal of metal under strain and beginning to twist.

Aerith had ignored the entrance of the Turks, had perhaps not even noticed them, but she bowed her head deeper when the sound from above rang out, and grew louder.

The rain fell harder, and the air shimmered with a barely visible magic that filled the church, and extended beyond, before the rain began to die off again.

Then the ground shook, and the noise became deafening.

Axel listened to Saix and rather hoped it wouldn't come to that. Their lives depending on Aerith and the last thing she, they or anybody in the church needed was a stray orbo bullet inhibiting her chakra flow.

When the noise above began, Axel looked around. He was entirely unhappy with that. His faith in Aerith trembled within him almost as strongly as the collapsing plate shook the ground. He trusted her -- she'd saved his life -- but with the most ambitious city in the whole of Spira disintegrating around his ears he didn't feel quite so easy putting his life in the folded hands of a white mage who held everything within the building on, quite literally, a wing and a prayer.

A movement in the corner of his eye dragged his attention from Saix before he got the chance to respond. The Turks moved further into the church. His hands strayed to his weapons on impulse and stopped when he watched the would-be enemy lower their weapons in confusion.

Saix responded to the movement of the Turks too, raising his hand, and preparing to summon the spirit particles to form his claymore, but he stopped when he saw his enemy lower their weapons as they got closer. Part of him howled to call his weapon and fight, but another part of him knew it was a skill best not demonstrated to such an audience if avoidable. And they didn't seem prepared to fight.

The noise outside grew worse; large things were audibly hitting the church, but the church's broken structure seemed to be holding against it.

Behind them, near Aerith, the assembled rabble they'd managed to corral into the church huddled together. The sound of sobs, and the odd scream, were barely heard over the cacophony of Midgar collapsing around them.

The noise ceased, quickly, and slowly at the same time. Small things collapsed against the side of the church, rubble and metal twisted and shifted, settling, but the loudest sounds had stopped.

Aerith looked up from her prayer, but didn't unclasp her hands for a long moment. When she did, she discreetly wiped her eyes before looking around the church.

There was another feeling in the air, outside of her own magic. It twisted in her stomach, and reminded her of the more unpleasant corners of her childhood. She'd felt the like before, but not this close, and not for a long time.

She stood up, a touch shakily, and looked up at the roof. The hole was blocked by a huge slab of rubble; there was nowhere for sunlight to filter through now, no matter how weak.

The silence after the noise of falling debris abated was almost as loud as the sound of the plate collapsing.

Axel exhaled, only half aware that he was holding a breath in. It sounded loud for a moment and then, slowly, the seemingly distant sobs of the people they had gathered in the church filtered back to him.

In the wake of that came the near-rush of almost static charged air. He'd been subjected to Mist in his first few weeks in the world and this didn't feel dissimilar to that. It felt oppressive, depressive and dour. Like an eerie, powerful sadness had flooded into the church at the moment Aerith finished her prayer. Whatever magic she had cast to hold back the devastation had also kept that feeling at bay.

Axel tried to shake off the dazed feeling. Everything had happened so quickly. Parts of if not all of the plate must have collapsed with them under it and they were alive. It was a lot to take in. He shook his head.

"It worked." He couldn't disguise the surprise in his voice. "She did it."

Saix glanced around. The silence outside was broken only by the sounds of rubble shifting and settling. Inside, there were sobs, and small families hugging each other, and squirming children being held too tightly for too long by parents who daren't let go.

"It's not over yet," he said, to Axel. "We still have to get out." It sounded like they were surrounded by rubble, and Midgar's plate stretched all the way to the city border.

Still, surviving had been the hardest part. Getting out again would just be hard work. "We should make sure everyone is all right." He noticed the painful, depressive feeling that had followed in the wake of the collapse, but he preferred not to comment on it.

Aerith was trying not to think about it. A lot of people had just lost their lives, more than she might ever be able to grasp, but they'd saved as many as they could. That was what was important.

"Thank you," she whispered, to the flowers, and then she moved from her spot, noticing the Turks for the first time, and paying them no real heed. They probably felt as lost as everyone else here.

Axel nodded to Saix, suddenly feeling nervous in the quiet. Driven, certainly, but nervous.

"Where do these people go?" He asked, his voice quiet, yet steady. "Everything they had has been destroyed."

Slum people, on the bottom rung of the ladder as it was, now found themselves with nothing, not even their shacks in the hot, choking gap beneath the plate and the ground.

"They will have to start again," Saix answered, matter of factly. "We managed," he pointed out, as a rare personal note. It would be hard, but it wasn't impossible.

Normally Saix would have declared that, having saved these people, their job was done, and the survivors were now no longer their problem. A couple of hours experience with Aerith, however, suggested she would have other ideas, and he suspected Axel would disapprove of Saix's attitude.

Perhaps he should think a little more like Isa, under the circumstances? Though temper it with some maturity and experience.

"We should see them to the nearest safe town," he added, without looking directly at Axel. "The area might become dangerous after so many deaths. It would be best for all concerned if we escorted them to a safe location, and then left quickly. The less attention we receive, the better."

Axel wasn't sure he agreed. He hadn't done a lot to start again. After disaster hit them in their lifetimes, he'd lost his heart and become a Nobody. The illusion of freedom and life had been there, and strongly, but it was just that -- an illusion. They had, of course, attempted to reclaim the former, but that ... had collapsed. He tried not to think about it. Or the total failure to survive and start over without the interference of the people he hated on this world. The situation they found themselves in could do without that.

"Yeah, you're right." Deaths on that scale would have repercussions of the Hollow kind. "Least we might get the chance to fight our way out yet." He grinned.

Saix gave an amused sounding huff. "You always knew how to keep my interest," he commented, drily.

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Midgar Continued...

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