Drawing closer, Reno and Rude were able to see through the glass portion of the wall that surrounded the slums. That it was Knife who had been charged with spying on the plate. She was one one of the Exiles that they had agreed was likely to flip sides given the chance, but they had to be careful still in case they were wrong, and she gave some alarm.
Rude asked of Reno. "What's our next step?" In Midgar Sign Language. But just as Reno began to gesticulate a response.
"I know you're there…" Knife's voice broke in on the quiet of the early morning. "Let me guess, Reno and Rude?"
"Guilty" Reno stepped out from behind the gate so that only the transparent perimeter wall stood between them. His hands held up in surrender, Rude in tow.
Knife wagged her own online monitor at them. "You're just lucky it's only me posted here at the moment." She told them.
"We were hoping you would side with us." Reno admitted.
"Then you're in luck. But listen, Maur just contacted me over the COMM. He tells me he's dropped Veld and Kunsel off at those caves, were the scientist Kilmister kept Rufus prisoner at the beginning of the geostigma epidemic. Veld is well armed, he expects to be tracked down eventually. If anyone's going to go out there to rescue Kunsel, they need to know that there are hundreds of land mines surrounding the caves."
Reno glanced meaningfully at Rude, Rude in turn brought out his PHS and quick dialed Felicia to warn her about the landmines that Knife had mentioned.
Knife listened to Rude talk a moment, then she asked Reno "The chief's own daughter is going out there to confront him?"
"Yeah." Reno confirmed. If was Felicia's request to be the one to go out to the caves, and keep Veld cornered until Cloud and Genesis could deliver the safe containing the bomb. "Kunsel ees real important to her, long time friends and all."
Knife considered the arrangement a moment then nodded slowly. "So that's why you two are here, to make sure Veld doesn't get word she's on her way?"
"That, and we missed you of course." Reno added light heartedly.
"Of course. But Maur's been ordered to join me at this post, he'll be here any moment. And if I give iffy reports to the Chie…errr Veld, he's going to pick up on it right away."
"And if Veld gets no reports from this position, he'll know something's up. Witch means we have to capture Maur, so that you can continue to hold this post like nothing happened."
"The question is, do you and Rude trust me?"
Reno shrugged haplessly. "Sure. You have a good head on your shoulders, you always wanted to do what was right as far as circumstances would allow. I don't think that's changed." It was a risk, there was always the possibility that she had been ordered to infiltrate, gain their trust to better report to Veld on his enemies. But as he had expressed, Reno didn't think that was the case. Rude's nodding indicated that he also felt the simple truth was that she would corner with them.
"Ok, that's good enough for me." She said. Then they picked up on an approaching lifesignal on the online monitors, and knife warned. "That's probably Maur on his way in a buggy, the lifesignal's moving to directly for it to be a wild chocobo. You two better hide, be ready to provide backup."
Retreating out of sight behind the gate once more, Reno and Rude stood poised ready.
Soon the sound of a buggys tiers over dirt and gravel could be heard, the vehicle approaching from off road.
First came the sound of the buggy door opening and closing, following this Knife and Maur started up talking.
"What took you?" Knife asked him.
"Things went sideways for a bit there. One of them, the first class Soldier went full monster, I can see why Veld's been so adamant about this. Poor Frayra was hit with a paralysis spell, and I needed a heal spell for broken ribs as well as a stab wound. But we pulled through."
Reno glanced at Rude.
From behind his shades Rude returned the look.
Reno though he had told Kunsel and Zax before they had left to visit their folks, not to get into any trouble. Now he was hearing that not only had Kunsel been captured, but something had happened to Zax too.
"Monster, how so? Did he what, physically channel a summon or a weapon or something, like that Fuhito guy tried to do with Zirconiade?" Knife questioned.
"Nah. it was some Jenova weirdness, wings and bug features that kind of stuff. I'll be having nightmares is all I'm going to say."
"We'll then, sleep tight!" With this last from Knife, the next Reno and Rude heard was a shout of alarm from from Maur.
"Knife wh..!" But Maur didn't have time to finish what he was saying.
Reno and Rude had jumped the perimeter wall, when they saw their target forced back by a volley of throwing knives.
"I took out his COMM!" Knife told them. Sure enough, three of her signature throwing weapons were lodged in the ruined device.
Rude charged past her to engage Maur in hand to hand combat, before Maur could get away in his buggy. Leaning to the side avoiding a straight from Maur, Rude countered with an uppercut that dazed Maur. Just long enough for Reno to dart in quick as lightning, to knock Maur out with a sound strike from his EMR.
"Don't mess with the turks yo." Reno told the unconscious Exile, with no small amount of wryness.
Felicia had just made the hoverbike ready for her trip into the valley. When her PHS cherped a second time.
Taking it up she answered the call. "Reno. Am I clear to leave the plate?"
"All clear. We were able to help Knife escape, and she helped us capture Maur. Just remember to watch out for those landmines ok?"
Felicia, traveling across the plate on her hoverbike, thanked them. "I appreciate you three doing this. And thank you for bringing me up to date. I'm going to do everything I can to help Kunsel."
"Alright."
Ending the call Felicia turned her attention to the edge of the plate, were sector 6 had been partially torn away when Zirconiade had been summoned from her. She maneuvered her vehicle past the drop and beneath the plate.
Passing above Reno, Rude and Knife, she lifted her hand to them before her hoverbike carried her over the slums perimeter wall. She still bore the scar were Hojo had implanted the Zirconiade materia in the back of her hand, a human experiment that her father had helped to cover up. She had not survived that ordeal, just to have her papa murder Kunsel. She promised herself that much, while racing through Midgar valley.
When Kunsel woke, groggy and ill. Ees view showed only the inside of a cloth bag that had been placed over ees head, something had been tied over ees mouth on the outside of the bag. And when ee attempted to move, ee found ee had been tied to a chair, using something sharp that cut in to ees arms legs and middle. It was cold wherever ee was, ee could hear thunder rumbling distantly, the sound echoing in the space that Veld deemed to keep em.
"You're awake, good." The voice belonged to Veld himself.
Kunsel could hear the mans footfalls, as he circled around from in front of em, to stand behind the chair to which ee had been bound. "My people can be a bit faint of heart, so instead I sent Nunchaku and Shotgun to Gongaga to bring me the traitors Cissnei and Katana, as well as that Emma wherever she's got to. The rest are keeping an eye on your friends in Midgar and Edge." Veld informed em, resting his hand on Kunsel's shoulder. "It's just you and me for the time being, there's no one here to question my methods." For an instant Veld tugged at the the cloth covering ees mouth, and at last it feel loosely about ees neck. "So are you going to make this easy on yourself, or will I be forced to make you cooperate?"
Kunsel cleared ees throat. "I can hold a conversation if you're really keen on hearing about the various ways of refining metal, I can talk all day. But if you're calling me a snitch then tough luck." Even if Kunsel knew were Zax had been taken, ee would never tell Veld.
For ees cheek ee was struck across the face, hard enough that the force of the blow upended ees chair. Ee was still coughing through the blood filling ees mouth and gushing from ees nose when Veld had again righted the chair.
"You turned my operative against me, you turned my daughter against me. You facilitated that monster's return from the lifestream. And you put Kilmister's research in the hands of Rufus ShinRa and the WRO, who harbor Genesis Rhapsodos, as well as two deepground tsviets. For now you're more useful to me alive it's true, but you'll beg me for death soon enough."
"Hades have you! I won't betray Zax. And Felicia? I didn't turn her against you." Kunsel spat. "You did that yourself, your abuse towards her and others turned her against you, and I don't blame her one little bit. If you think you and your cult task force can go around threatening people who pose no special danger, without meeting resistance, then you're kidding yourself. When Zax comes for me, you'll be lucky if he lets you beg even, he's not cruel like you."
"You're confident in him. Good, if he comes thinking to save you, I'll consider it two birds one stone. But you assume much, Zax isn't my main target, that would be you."
"What?" Kunsel voiced, legitimately taken aback.
"You're smart aren't you, good at hunting the pieces out, spotting patterns. Tell me, why do you think Fuhito used you as the base for his Raven super soldiers? And why did the Shinra company Soldier program not expel you? Besides your being a spy, you do know they have to have discovered that you are trans at some stage. Why did Hojo deam you and the other Kalm bombing survivors, as worthy candidates to undergo the process of materia implantation?"
Kunsel shook ees head baffled, what was Veld talking about? Ee had been sure that the ShinRa company had already spent to much on ees training and augmentation, that Fuhito had been opertunitic in using blood from one of Hojo's failed experiments, that Hojo too had been opertunitic when he had taken Kalm survivors in as subjects. But here was Veld, a man who had intimate knowledge of company secrets, tellingem there was more to it.
"Haven't figured it out? I'll tell you. Like my daughter you're half kalmish, I believe it was your biological grandmother who was from the old Raven clan. But did you know that the Kalmish clans, as well as the people who made up the inhabitants of the original districts where Midgar now stands. Had DNA organized in such a way that it marked them as a third genus, unlike the humans we know today, or those of the ancient Cetra cultures?"
"What does it matter?" Kunsel couldn't fathom. It wasn't like ee could speak with the planet as a Cetra could have done.
Veld went on. "This class of people had great magical and technological capabilities, apparently they were the ones to call mythril to the planet, that's what the WRO's archaeological investigation indicates. You might know that Sephiroth's birth mother, Lucrecia Crescent was Kalmish? That's why Hojo took interest in her. And that's why Sephiroth the last of the Crescent clan, Lucrecia's abomination, could channell the magic required to use the black materia."
It was a cold wintery morning, Kunsel could discern that much by the light that made it through the weave of the bag over ees head. But this declaration from Veld made em number than exposure.
"That's why I need you. You and Felicia are likly the last of your kind, with magical reserves strong enough for the task I have in mind. And I don't mind coercing you if I must."
"You…have the black materia?" Kunsel had to keep ees voice from rasping.
"My Exiles found it in the collapse of the northern crater."
"This can't be real. Meteor Isn't…oh my gaia, it can't be used without destroying the planet, you have to know that!"
"Fuhito's research indicates that unlike Zirconiade, meteor can in fact be directed, controlled by intent. The only reason he did not utilize Meteor himself, was because he already had Zirconiade in his possession, and because the black materia could not be found transfigured like it was in to a temple itself well hidden." Having said this. Veld lifted the bag from Kunsel's head, and forcing ees eyelids open, he plucked out the gem ring, despite Kunsel's turning this way and that.
Casting aside the ring, Veld next drew a case from his jackets inner pocket, were it was kept next to a handgun. At last, from the case came the darkest materia that Kunsel had ever seen, it's smooth metallic surface picking up on the blues and purple in the light.
"No!" Kunsel protested. Adrenalin kniffing through em, ee hardly felt the razor wire keeping em in ees chair, as ee struggled away from the materias almost magnetic pull and Veld's hold.
But with some considerable effort Veld had got em in a headlook, and he was able to fit the materia in to Kunsel's eye socket, leaving Kunsel shaken and feeling sick for a whole new reason.
Ee blinked hard against the tears that threatened, summoned up by the rough treatment the area had experienced and shock both. "Nothing Fuhito left behind is worth legitimizing, this is like playing roulette with the planet at stake." Kunsel about pleaded in a raw whisper. If Veld was right about em having some kind of inherited ability to call on meteor, then the planet and ee were in a worse position than ee had imagined. After all Magic wasn't always vulanterry, it could be forced from em, no matter how ee resisted. If Veld succeeded in provoking strong enough mind waves in em, ees greater than average MP would have a good chance of calling down meteor. Except this time Aeris, Zax and anyone else who had helped them, would not be within the lifestream and able to fend off Meteor. Holy was permanently combined with Aeris, removed from the planet. And even Omega the last line of defence was gone. The ultimate destruction magic could not be stopped a second time.
But what if Fuhito had been right about intent, could Meteor magic be focused on specific targets, like the limits meteor shot or meteor rain? Was there a chance it could be utilized without the destruction of the planet? Kunsel knew that if ee could not hold out against Veld's torture, causing a shock to set off the black materia and Meteor, then ee would have no other choice but to call it down on Veld and emself. Veld was counting on Kunsel's survival instinct to avoid this, staying close for that reason, but he had underestimated Kunsel. Still Kunsel had to trust Zax could make it in time, before that extreme became a necessity.