Final Fantasy VII: Reflections - Book 1: Descent

THIRTY-NINE

A week after taking out Tremmel and his thugs in Wall Market and getting the key to the Vice gang's strongbox, I was in my shop sitting at my desk, inputting the latest set of data I'd collected about their attacks into my computer. It was late afternoon, with autumn just starting, and I stopped for a moment when I realized I'd been living in the slums for two years now. Had it really been that long?

It was a little hard to believe. So much had happened since I'd been here—staying with Aerith and getting on my feet again, standing up to Don Corneo and his pet, arriving in Sector 7 and meeting everyone for the first time, joining Avalanche, my mission with Tifa to scout out the Shinra supply depot, our dangerous journey through the sewers where I'd nearly died, my fighting lessons with her, stealing engine parts from the museum and finishing our secret elevator, starting my little project to build a Hardy, and Katie and Tom's wedding.

In spite of how much I liked and enjoyed the life I'd built for myself down here, I'd never quite shaken my fear that my father would shatter my life again somehow like he had before. There'd been times, when I'd lay in bed at night, that I'd worry about it. I hadn't heard anything ever since I'd left the plate, so I shouldn't have been concerned. But even so, it bothered me. He had come out of nowhere before to destroy me and all that I'd had. I didn't want it to happen again.

I had considered telling the others the truth about myself, of who I really was and how I had left the plate, but... I hadn't been able to do it. Not even just to Tifa. I was afraid of what they'd think, if they'd still feel the same way about me after finding out that not only was I in Shinra, I was also the daughter of one their most hated enemies. I'd told myself I was probably getting myself worked up over nothing, but... I couldn't do it. I was just too scared of being rejected.

Pushing those thoughts from my mind, I got back to work putting in the last of the data. My tablet sat next me on the desk, and I glanced at the information displayed on it from time to time as I fed it into the computer. When I was finished, I tapped a few keys to update and run the analysis program using the new data.

A map of the slums came up on the screen a moment later. It went all the way from the outskirts of Sector 7 to the borders of the Sector 5 undercity. A collection of red dots marked the locations of each attack, with the date listed above each one. There were a lot of them—way too many, in fact—and they'd been increasing steadily over the past several months. I sighed, rubbing my chin in thought as I gazed intently at the map. There had to be a pattern somewhere.

Most of the attacks were clustered in the northwest half of Sector 5 and in the southeast portion of Sector 6, including a good chunk of the collapsed expressway. So far at least, they hadn't gotten too close to the actual settlements but had stayed fairly in the middle between the two. Which meant that their base was somewhere in those hills of scrap and junk. I'd already guessed that much, but I needed their exact location. I couldn't just go wandering aimlessly.

Inputting a few more commands, I told the program to analyze the location data again and show me all the attacks in chronological order. The dots disappeared for a moment and then slowly started to emerge again. At first, I didn't see anything. But then, as more of them came in and the pattern began to emerge, my eyes widened and I finally began to understand. I sat back, thinking it over.

The attacks had started out in the heart of those long, empty trails that wound between here and the Sector 5 undercity and had gradually expanded outward in both directions. They were closer to Sector 5 for the most part, but more of them had been coming this way lately. None past the collapsed expressway so far, but if the pattern held, that would change soon enough. Now that I understood the pattern of the attacks and how they were expanding, I had the program use that information to run a trace and find their point of origin.