"What's going on with the orphanage's construction?" Marlene asked Tifa while she got dressed.
"The groundbreaking will take place in two weeks on schedule." Tifa focused on Marlene's question instead of following Cloud. "But that architect needs to be seriously knocked around. Wanting to turn the orphanage into a castle or fortress type building…if it was a castle, I'd put him in the dungeon myself! What are you doing? Don't forget we're going shopping for more maternity clothes this afternoon."
"Going for a walk. I'll take care of the architect when I get back." Marlene said as she left the room. When she got out on the porch, her phone's special ringtone she had programmed for Reno's calls or messages went off. Taking her phone out of her pocket, she noticed there was a text message from him. Meet me in the hangar ASAP. Marlene was surprised, she hadn't heard the helicopter land, but she hurried to the newly constructed hangar, eager to see her husband again. "Reno?" Confused when she didn't see the helicopter when she entered the hangar, she was about to turn around when the door suddenly slammed shut.
"Reno failed to say how pretty his wife is." A man walked out of the shadows, and Marlene wondered what happened to him. He had evidence of what looked like unusual burn scars peeking out from the collar.
"Who are you?" Marlene edged closer to the toolbox and clenched one hand into a fist, while another searched for a tool she could use as a weapon.
"It doesn't really matter, but since you won't be telling anyone else, you can call me Manny." Noticing the wrench she was holding behind her like a weapon, the man took out a materia from his pocket and it started glowing. "I didn't think you'd come willingly."
A shockwave burst out from Manny's outstretched hand, and Marlene's wedding ring glowed as the shockwave hit her with only enough force to make her stagger backwards and fall over the toolbox.
"Is Marlene back from her walk yet?" Tifa asked Cloud. "We're supposed to be going shopping soon, and she said she'd finish dealing with the architect."
"I'll go look for her." Cloud walked around the property, calling her name. Getting worried, he finally went into the hangar and was greeted by a disturbing scene inside. There were signs of an intense struggle with blood smeared on the floor, and in the middle of that, something was glowing. Picking it up, Cloud immediately recognized Marlene's wedding ring.
"Why is Yuffie calling me telling me the Junon team will be here in half an hour? What's going on?" Tifa asked her husband when Cloud burst back into the house to get the keys to the garage where Fenrir was parked. Cloud took a deep breath and held out the bloody wedding ring for Tifa to see. She gasped and grabbed onto the kitchen chair to steady herself. "What's happened to Marlene?"
"That's what we're going to find out. I called Reeve and told him to send the best S&R and investigative teams he's got." Cloud informed her.
Reno was flying Rude and Elena to Fort Condor when Tseng's voice came crackling over the radio. "Change of plans. You've all been recalled to a new assignment."
"That's your house!" Rude exclaimed when Tseng gave Reno the coordinates. Reno nodded and instantly changed course, wondering what could have happened, and trying to ignore that knot of fear that formed in his stomach.
When they got there, there were a dozen vehicles already parked in their yard. Landing on the helipad, Reno bolted out the door towards the house instead of checking all the instrumentation as was his habit before takeoff and after landing. Cloud and Tifa were in the kitchen with the team leaders, and he instantly sought them out.
"What's going on? Where's Marlene?" Reno demanded to know.
Cloud and Tifa exchanged glances, then Cloud reluctantly pointed to the kitchen counter where Marlene's bloody wedding ring was sealed in an evidence bag.
"Where is she?" Reno managed to repeat his question as he struggled to remain calm.
"What took you so long?" A woman's voice boomed through Marlene's aching head as she felt herself being tossed down onto a firm surface while she faded in and out of consciousness .
"You should have tried to take her down, Vena." Manny snapped back. "She's a Turk's wife after all. Her damned wedding ring had protection materia embedded in it. I couldn't even cut her finger off, I had to take the ring off myself."
"Well, at least that means she's important to him. We fucked up the last time, Rufus Shinra didn't care enough about his wife." Vena replied. "This time we'll send a proper message."
"We wouldn't have bungled the last one so bad if Tomal hadn't gotten so carried away and killed her." Manny reminded her.
Vena shuddered. "She was lucky to have died. Tomal enjoys pain too much. I wish we didn't need him."
"Don't let him ever hear you say that, and he's the best we've got to deliver our message. Where's Doc?" Manny asked. "I need some painkillers and my arm fixed while you secure our guest."
Starting at the hangar, search teams fanned out in a grid pattern while a forensics team searched inside the hangar for any clues. Reno took over the aerial search, sending surveillance pictures back to the hastily set-up base camp for the teams.
"I found drag marks!" Cait Sith suddenly yelled, his body its own transmitter and receiver to communicate with other searchers.
Rude and Elena were closest to him, and they hurried over. "Marlene wouldn't have gone quietly." Elena sadly remarked as they followed the drag marks to the nearby road.
"What's this?" Rude knelt down and picked up pieces of something. "Looks like it was her cellphone."
"They knew it had a GPS tracker." Elena frowned. "This was as well planned as Scarlet's abduction. Could it be the same group?"
"More blood over here!" Cait Sith called out to them. "And…this is…"
Concerned that he wouldn't finish his sentence, Rude and Elena walked over to see what it was, and a dangerous glint flashed through her eyes, changing to concern when she heard Reno barging through the underbrush towards them.
"What'd you find?" Reno asked them.
"Nothing you need to see." Rude held him back.
"What is it?" Reno tried not to yell at his partner.
Elena hurriedly put disposable gloves on and put the fetus in another evidence bag, then in a paper bag in which she also put the pieces of the cellphone into. "It's not Marlene." was all she would tell him as she ordered Cait Sith to take the bag to the forensics team.