A/N: This can be read directly after the WEAPON attack on Midgar in CH100 of To Be Human.

There was no warning.

One minute everyone was going about their lives and in the next, Midgar's omnipresent gloom was pierced by a brilliant light. It filled the horizon as it came nearer, blindingly bright and consuming. It started with a low hum, but began to get louder and louder, until there was a deafening roar so loud that the Plate rattled.

And then it hit.

The light was solid, a phenomenon beyond comprehension as a massive laser tore through the side of the Plate without the slightest sign of resistance. Metal shrieked as it sheared off, an eternity of heat and destruction as the laser went on and on. Even when it was gone, it took a minute for the roaring to fade. Blinded and deafened, people were frozen in a long moment of horror trying to understand what had just happened.

As sound began to filter back in, the crackle of fire and groaning of metal was nearly drowned out by screaming. Panic began to set in, words and rational responses stripped away by the enormity of the event. The entire curved edge of Sector Eight had been sheared off, and it was a pure miracle that only one reactor had been hit. The damages from that alone were tremendous, the explosion taking off even more of the Plate. Flaming debris plummeted over the ragged edge into the Slums below, molten metal dripping off into the void as flames devoured the new edge and any buildings that hadn't been fully destroyed by the laser.

Belatedly, alarms kicked on, blaring emergency klaxons adding to the chaos. Whatever disasters they'd meant to herald, this had never been predicted. Nothing even remotely like this had crossed anyone's minds. There was no plan to handle it. Firetrucks deployed, but they were only a stopgap measure. They couldn't reach all of it, the fire continuing to blaze and buildings already half devastated crumbling in on themselves, heedless of the people trying desperately to escape.

While those in ShinRa Tower watched from a safe distance, Reeve Tuesti raced down to his department. Sector Eight may have been Turk jurisdiction, but the city belonged to Urban Development. Plans for the potential collapse of the Plate had never been implemented, but they'd been made. Plans for dealing with faulty reactors, meltdowns or gods forbid explosions. Within minutes, he had planes deploying with tanks of flame retardants, ready to slow the spread of the fire until it could be put out properly. Medical was tagged to send out as many emergency crews as they could spare to assist the soon-to-be overwhelmed hospitals. Evacuation teams were drafted and sent out as quickly as possible. They would save everyone they could.

It never felt like enough.