Part One: The Plan
((Author's Notes: This is the sequel to my AU tale Irony of Fate, though you should read Interlude first for the story of what everyone did on their three day break after stopping Meteor. This fic was abandoned and left incomplete for many years, but I finally returned to writing in 2012 and it is now complete. There are even multiple other fics that continue the story now if you check out my profile. :) Anyway, I hope you enjoy and will let me know what you think! ~ JenesisX ))
Several hours after the reunion of Avalanche aboard the Highwind, all nine members were seated around the long conference table in the meeting room, about to discuss their next step as a team. Cloud sat at the tallest chair at the head of the table, the others lined up four on each side in smaller, similar chairs. The meeting room had clearly been constructed with the chain of command in mind, to make it clear to all present who was in charge. Cloud appeared small and uncomfortable as he looked down the table, bright blue eyes passing over his team.
Tifa sat to his right, looking as excited and relieved as he felt that everyone had elected to return. He couldn't help but glance at the wedding ring on her finger every now and then, grinning as he briefly met her warm brown eyes. He almost needed to see the ring as proof that everything that happened between them was real and not just another of his dreams. How he wished they'd had more time to celebrate their marriage, and how he wanted to be able to give her so much better than the small, rushed ceremony they'd had. But in her eyes, he could see that she was happy, and that she loved him… and that was what really mattered. Perhaps someday, when all of this was settled, he could give her more.
Beside her, Barret looked just as excited about the meeting, his dark features holding a determination to continue his long battle against those who had taken so much from he and his hometown. There was a sadness about him, most likely over having to part with his young daughter yet again, but Cloud was glad to have him back regardless of his mood. Despite past differences, he trusted Barret and knew he would be a strong, loyal ally through whatever awaited them. Barret believed in their cause and would not back down until they'd won, and his dedication and energy were contagious even if he wasn't the smartest or most subtle member of the group. His courage and heart more than made up for those shortcomings.
Next down the line was Cid, who had finally ground out his cigarette after repeated requests by Aeris, accompanied by a death glare from Sephiroth when he refused. Even so, he looked more alive than anyone had ever seen him, as if ten years had simply been erased from his rugged features. Cloud strongly suspected the reason was his visit home with Shera, but the pilot had flatly refused to reveal anything thus far and avoided all questions about his time off. Even so, it was clear that he was glad to be back and just as determined as the others to continue with their mission. He loved his airship and serving as its pilot, and the adventure had brought him more enjoyment and self fulfillment than he'd experienced in years. It had also apparently helped him to get in touch with his more personal feelings, something that had visibly unburdened him.
At the end of the table's right side was Yuffie, already fidgeting in her chair and looking a bit green with airsickness, even though the pilots had kept the flight nothing but smooth and flawless since everyone had come aboard. She still looked excited, though, her eyes darting about in anticipation. Something important had clearly happened during her trip home to see her father, and it seemed like she couldn't wait to discuss it.
Across from her, Red perched awkwardly on a chair like a large cat joining his human family for dinner. Though he was still grieving heavily for Bugenhagen, he hid it well, watching Cloud expectantly with his remaining yellow eye. Cloud met his gaze and smiled slightly, and Red nodded back in a gesture of silent encouragement.
Next to Red, Vincent was staring at the far wall from without the folds of his heavy red cloak, as if he was already bored or his mind was completely elsewhere. By now, Cloud was used to his demeanor and knew he would hear every word despite his facade of oblivion. Vincent seemed to see and hear everything, even when he appeared dead to the world.
Cloud cleared his throat, all eyes aside from Vincent's vacant red ones instantly drawn to him. He swallowed hard, managed a slight smile, and folded his hands neatly atop the wooden table.
"Well, first of all," he began, starting in a very quiet voice but gaining confidence with each word, reacquainting himself with leadership after their brief vacation. "I just wanted to say again how glad I am that all of you have come back. This team needs each and every one of you, despite any personal feelings some of us may have… And with all of you back, I think we have a real chance to make this happen."
"Aww, shucks," Cid said with a snicker, feigning embarrassment. "I didn't know you fucking cared, Cl-OW!" He turned and glared at Sephiroth, bending down to rub his throbbing shin with one hand. "Don't kick me, asshole!" he shouted accusingly, though he looked more surprised than angry, wincing in pain.
"Do not use that language in front of my wife."
Cid snorted, shook his head, then favored Aeris with a crooked grin. "Sorry, Aeris," he said, surprising everyone. "I gotta work on that... Shera don't like it, either."
"Oooooh... Cid has a girlfriend, Cid has a girlfriend!" Yuffie shouted, practically leaping out of her chair and grinning evilly. She had been waiting for such a moment, and to her delight, the pilot turned bright red and lowered his gaze, squirming in his chair. "Haha! I knew it!" Yuffie exclaimed, giggling and pointing at him. "Cid is in looooove!"
"Aww... shaddap," Cid muttered, almost everyone now staring at him and smirking knowingly. "Isn't this fuc- uh... frigging meeting about our plans and not my personal life?!"
"Yeah, it is," Cloud said, quickly wiping the smile from his face and trying very hard not to laugh. "The point of this meeting is this... Okay, we're all back together, and the Planet is safe for now. But Shin-ra is still out there and active, so what do we do next?"
Silence greeted him, the gears turning in everyone's heads so loudly that they were almost audible. But no one spoke, bringing reality to the fear Cloud had held. No one knew... and neither did he. Cloud sighed heavily, suddenly feeling a lot less excited about their reunion. What good was it if they didn't know what to do next?! He was their leader, and he found himself clueless no matter how hard he thought. Was he going to fail within five minutes of the official re-launch of Avalanche?
"Dat's a good question," Barret said, miffed, as if it was just now crossing his mind for the first time. "Uh... anybody got an idea?" he asked hopefully, looking down the table at his teammates.
At his question, Sephiroth did something completely out of character. He fidgeted in his seat, as if he was nervous or had something important on his mind and was not sure if he ought to share it. Always stoic and in tight control while in public, his movement instantly caught the attention of most in the room. He averted his gaze, however, even when Aeris nodded to him and looked up approvingly. She even reached out and covered one of his gloved hands with hers on the tabletop, as if they had already discussed what was on his mind and she was now encouraging him to tell the others. After several long moments of being stared at, Sephiroth finally cleared his throat and lifted his head, looking down the long table at Cloud.
"I have had some... thoughts... on the matter," he said awkwardly, barely audible. Cloud would not look at him, but instead kept his eyes on Aeris at his side.
"Go on," he said tensely, telling himself that they needed to hear thoughts and ideas from everyone. No one else seemed to have anything to offer, after all.
"I... think we are going about this the wrong way," he began, sounding very cautious.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Cloud snapped, narrowing his eyes. "Are you questioning my leadership?"
Sephiroth sighed wearily, as if he had expected just such a reply. "No, no... Forget it."
Aeris frowned, visibly squeezing his hand. Even Vincent quietly shook his head in annoyance.
"Cloud... let him talk," Tifa said quietly, the only one who seemed willing to risk voicing the thought. "No one else has any ideas. At least listen to what he has to say."
Cloud glanced over at her, his anger quickly fading, and finally nodded. Tifa could convince him of almost anything.
"Fine. Go ahead... Sephiroth." He always managed to make the other man's name sound more foul than Cid's worst swear.
Sephiroth said nothing at first, clearly debating whether or not it was even worth the effort, but finally sighed again and went on. "What I meant is... Shin-ra is very large, spread out across the entire Planet. We are one small group, and even with the Highwind, the nine of us cannot be everywhere at once. All we have been able to do is hurry from one place to the next, trying desperately to keep up with them, wasting energy and resources... when we could instead spend the time building them up."
Tifa nodded. "Nine of us against all of them does seem a bit hopeless sometimes..."
"So what do you want us to do? Recruit?" Cid asked incredulously.
"Precisely," Sephiroth said, winning a truly stunned look from the pilot, and most of the others as well.
"What?" Cloud asked, also clearly surprised. "Recruit? How?!"
"We could always put up those cool posters... 'Wanted: Rebel Group Recruits! Experience optional! No pay, and you might die soon!' Riiiight," Cid snorted, shaking his head. "What are you on, man?" he asked Sephiroth, winning an angry glare.
"Will you guys stop making fun and hear him out?!" Aeris exclaimed in frustration, angered by the way no one on the team would take her husband seriously. Everyone gaped at her in surprise at the rare outburst. "Are you all forgetting that he is probably the greatest war general and strategist that ever lived?"
Sephiroth blushed at that, but the comment did silence the others for the moment.
"Go ahead, Seph. They're going to be quiet now," Aeris said with a smile at her husband, feeling a confidence he clearly did not. He hesitated, but finally gave in to her encouragement.
"I was simply thinking that... there have got to be more people who dislike Shin-ra. If they have interrupted all of our lives, after all, does it not make sense that they have done the same to many others?"
Cloud nodded slowly. "That's reasonable. I mean, they've affected whole towns... whole countries!" he suddenly exclaimed, exchanging a glance with Yuffie, who nodded back seriously for once.
"I can't fit a whole country on my god damn airship," Cid said, rolling his eyes.
Sephiroth actually grinned at that, causing several people who had never seen the expression before to gape momentarily. Red, however, grinned back for the first time since coming aboard.
"I think I know where he is going with this," the feline said, nodding in approval and even looking a bit excited.
"Well, I'm glad someone does, because I sure don't," Cloud said, looking frustrated, his hands clenched into fists on the tabletop.
"Me neither..." said Barret, clearly lost, running his normal hand across the top of his head.
"It is simple," Sephiroth went on, now sounding quite confident and even a little proud of himself. "If we are to take on such a large corporation with an entire army at its disposal... we need an army of our own. But in order to do that, we first need a base from which to operate. A permanent one."
Sephiroth looked pleased in the moment of silence that followed, the expressions on the faces of the others ranging from shock to deep thought. Aeris smiled up at him, proud of him for his willingness to explain the idea he had told her about on their break. He smiled back slightly and nodded, then turned to meet Cloud's eyes.
"I... never thought about that," Cloud admitted, actually looking back at Sephiroth with something that could have almost been admiration.
"It makes sense," Red said, nodding eagerly. "If we had our own base, we would be more secure. We would have room to recruit more people who feel the way we do, train them, plan courses of action... The possibilities are amazing."
"Huh... Our very own base," Barret thought out loud, trying to picture it in his mind as a slow smile began to form on his face.
"Um... Where would we get this base from?" Yuffie finally asked. "I mean, there's no way we could build one without them noticing, and it would take forever. And we don't have enough gil to buy one..."
"We take it," Sephiroth said easily.
"Uh... take it from where?"
His pleased grin returned. "That is the true beauty of it..." he said almost blissfully, as if he was thoroughly enjoying this now, doing the thing he had always liked the most about being involved with the military. Everyone else may have seen him as nothing but a heartless killer, but strategizing had always been General Sephiroth's true love.
"Shin-ra," Vincent said quietly, still staring off into space, but obviously hearing every word.
"Exactly."
"WHAT?!" Barret exclaimed. "You think we can jus' march right in and take one of Shin-ra's military bases?!"
"With the correct planning and circumstances... yes," Sephiroth said calmly, having thought this out for days now.
"We've talked a lot about this, and I agree with him," Aeris said, nodding. "We're never going to be able to do anything but chip away at them in little pieces otherwise. We may be able to stop them here and there, but by the time we can act again, they've just regrouped and moved on to something else. They have the military, they have the Turks… All we have right now is the nine of us and this single airship. We need to be more stable, so we're not always on the run and chasing them around the Planet. We need to be able to settle somewhere, recruit, prepare for bigger moves against them... And a Shin-ra base would already have all the equipment and supplies we need."
"Wow, Aeris, you're starting to sound like a general yourself," Tifa couldn't help but say.
"I spend a lot of time with one," Aeris said proudly, beaming up at her husband with obvious adoration. "A brilliant one."
"Hmph..."
"Um... do you... have a location in mind?" Cloud finally asked, still digesting the enormity of Sephiroth's plan.
"I may..." Sephiroth said vaguely. "It would take some intricate planning, but..."
"Where are you thinking of?" Cid asked, leaning forward on his elbows now, intrigued.
"Junon Harbor."
"Ha! That's funny," Cid said, grinning appreciatively at the man's newfound sense of humor. "Now where do you really mean?"
"... I was serious," Sephiroth said flatly, blinking at the pilot in confusion.
"Then you're even more off your god damn rocker than I thought!" Cid exclaimed, slapping a hand down on the table. "Are you insane?!"
"Yes," muttered Cloud and Barret together.
Sephiroth was on his feet instantly, glaring down at them with anger... and perhaps a bit of hurt as well. "Fine. Do not listen." With that, he turned and stalked from the room, leaving behind a cold breeze and an uncomfortable silence.
Aeris watched him go with a sigh, then glared down the table at Cloud, Cid, and Barret with rare anger burning in her eyes. "Thanks a lot, guys," she said tensely, sounding almost tearful. "Do you know how hard it was to convince him that if he came back here with me, he'd be accepted? That when he came up with this plan, he could tell you all and you'd be mature and listen? Do you think I'll ever be able to get him to share any of his ideas with this team again? You're all so blinded by hate and fear that you won't even listen to him, and I didn't see anyone else volunteering any plans!"
Barret had the good grace to hang his head in shame, and even Cid looked down at her scolding. Cloud, however, simply sighed.
"I know you... love him... Aeris," Cloud said, clearly disgusted by the idea, "But I heard him out, and he isn't making any sense. Junon Harbor is Shin-ra's second most important facility after their Headquarters in Midgar. What he's proposing is impossible."
"Why?" Vincent finally said quietly, turning his blood red eyes on Cloud and pretending not to notice when the younger man shivered. "Why is it impossible?"
Cloud gave him a look that clearly asked if he was insane, too, or just stupid. "The hundreds of troops stationed there? The advanced security systems? The fact that we'd then have nine people to defend an entire base when they tried to take it back?"
"Sephiroth had ideas for all of those issues," Aeris said pointedly. "You never let him get to them."
"Well, what did he have in mind, then?" Cloud asked, more willing to hear Sephiroth's plan out of his wife's mouth rather than from the man himself.
Aeris hesitated at first, but went on after a nod from Vincent. "He thought that, if we could create a big enough distraction in another part of the world, Shin-ra would have to dispatch most of the troops from Junon Harbor. They wouldn't leave Midgar and Headquarters undefended, after all... That's far more important to them. And all Junon really is at the moment is a back-up base... more of a training facility than anything from what Sephiroth told me. Because of that, the majority of the soldiers there are older, retired ones serving as instructors, or young, inexperienced recruits in training. So even if a good number of them are still there, he thought we could handle them."
"What could we possibly do to get them pissed off enough to dispatch that large a number of the troops, though?" Cid asked. "Even if we blew up another damn reactor, I doubt we'd get more than a dozen or so..."
"Sephiroth thought that if there was an uprising somewhere, it might work... but then that would put those people in danger," Aeris said with a frown.
"An uprising in Wutai would sure get their attention," Yuffie said a bit wistfully. "But my father only agreed to keep a watch on us and act against them if it looked like he could win without a lot of bloodshed. I know he'd never support this." She shook her head, frustrated and disappointed, but knew that what he had already agreed to was far more than she had ever expected. For now, it would have to be enough.
"I'm not going to endanger any innocent people just so we can take over a base," Cloud said, shaking his head. "Maybe their lives don't mean anything to him, but-"
"Cloud! Would you stop?!" Aeris exclaimed, looking more tearful than before. "They do matter to him! You don't know him like I do. Please stop acting like you do..."
Cloud looked ready to reply, but Tifa's hand on his arm stopped him, and he simply sighed and muttered an apology before continuing.
"Well, as nice as this all sounds, and as great as it would be to have a stable base of operations and more people at our disposal... I still don't see how we can pull this off."
"Man, it would be so cool to have our own base, though... even our own army," Barret said wistfully, the idea of growing so powerful having long been his dream for the small rebel group he'd founded back in the slums. "Imagine the difference we could make... an' my Marlene could even live dere wit' me when it was safe!"
"Yeah... It's a nice thought," Tifa agreed softly, a faraway look in her eyes.
"So what are we going to do, then?" Aeris asked, still sounding uncharactistically irritated. "Sit around and wait until the next time Shin-ra almost destroys the Planet? The next time they experiment on people and ruin their lives? The next time they declare war and kill thousands of people?"
"No. I don't want to do that, either, but... there has to be an easier way," Cloud mused.
"The easy way is not always the right way," Red said quietly.
"But this is impossible," Cloud replied, still overwhelmed.
"Or is it?"
Everyone turned in surprise to find Sephiroth standing in the doorway, a smirk playing across his face, a rare twinkle in his eyes.
"What do you mean?" Cloud asked tensely, having had enough of his rival for one day.
"You are never going to believe this, but... we just intercepted a Shin-ra radio message on one of their emergency channels," he said, sounding quite pleased as he stood tall just inside the doorway. "I was able to translate the encryption rather easily. According to the message, another WEAPON is heading directly toward Midgar, preparing to attack. The order just went out for all but a skeleton crew from Junon Harbor to be dispatched to help defend the city. In ten hours, the base will be virtually undefended."