It's still Easter hols, it's the middle of Autumn here in Australia and its COLD! So I'm going to post a couple more chapters to pass the chilly wet days!

alesana4ever – you are quite right about Sturge, he is the Director of G Squad. Chapters 1 and 2 will give more background to this but this quote from Chapter 1 "All members of AVALANCHE are of course members of G Squad, even though only some of them actually have active participation in the squad. But G squad also comprises some of the best warriors that exist – and the squad will continue to gradually increase as more elite warriors are found." – this is from one of the first conversations, between Reeve and Rufus Shinra. In two chapters on, you will also see that the one who does take control of what they have to do is a member of AVALANCHE who also of course is an active member of G Squad (but of course I'm not going to say who it is in advance of that chapter!).

Dontgotaclue88 – I just had to post chapter 6 today since you were keen to read it – chapter 7 is also posted tonight.

Hope everyone else who reads it, enjoys it. We have been lucky to have a few new chapters and new stories posted in the last few days, one of the joys we have of reading

7. The WRO is attacked

Katherine's alarm went off at 6am and she hit the shower running. With everything that had happened the previous day, she had a lot to tell both Chrissie and her parents and she needed to get hold of them before her day started. At 6.30am she texted Chrissie "urgent news, need to talk now, where are you?". Chrissie replied straight away "on way to dining hall, do I come to you?". Katherine replied "see you there in a few minutes" and finished tying her hair in to a braid. Although she did not have to start until 9am, she had to catch hold of Chrissie and her parents early, before they left for work. Grabbing her keys, she went out of the door and headed over to the dining room.

Chrissie had managed to get hold of one of the few two seater tables, which were usually already full, and had orange juice and coffee and a plate of cooked breakfast, diced fruit and cereal lined up in front of Katherine's chair. "I didn't know what you would fancy this morning, so got a bit of everything" grinned Chrissie, "now tell me what this urgent news is and who it is I have to kill for you and when the baby is due". Katherine rolled her eyes at her sister as she gulped some orange juice down. "I'm not the one who has a boyfriend, smart ass" she said, wiping her mouth with a napkin. To her delight, Chrissie actually blushed. "We're just friends – kind of" she stuttered. It was Katherine's turn to grin – "kind of? As in you're having sex kind of, you're holding hands kind of, meeting his parents kind of, or what". "Alright, alright – maybe I saw him on Sunday afternoon. And maybe Sunday evening. And possibly last night. And maybe I might be seeing him tonight too" Chrissie had her head hanging down a bit self consciously. "Ok, so I think we can establish that he is your boy friend" laughed Katherine "maybe when you find you're not seeing him one night we can catch up and you can tell me about it, oh obsessed one".

She took a sip of her coffee and looked at Chrissie. "I have some news for you that is on a major scale and has lots of bits to it but I don't have time to go over it all before you need to head off and I need to call mum and dad, so I am going to give you the main points and go over the rest with you at dinner tonight". Chrissie became more serious and nodded. "It's actually good news, terrific news, but it's also very strange news – so if you can manage not to interrupt me I'll try and tell you as much of it as I can. Umm where to start – ok you know that Yuffie lent me some materia, well yesterday morning I had my class with Vincent from 9am as Cloud was late arriving here. He went over the materia with me and then apparently after I left, Chaos said to him that he wondered what my limit breaks were. You know who Chaos is?" she said looking at Chrissie. Chrissie nodded – "demon that killed Omega, helped AVALANCHE, lives inside Vincent Valentine". "Damn, you know more than I did. Anyway, Vincent told him that I don't have one and Chaos told him that I actually have three. As I hadn't put it on my application form, Vincent was rather puzzled by this and between them he and Chaos came up with the view that I have had them since birth, but my parents were going to tell me when I was older but of course they disappeared so I never found out".

She raised her eyes at Chrissie. "This is the condensed version, ok?". Chrissie nodded again, looking at her intently. "So, I ended up having to meet with Director Sturge, Ms Black, Vincent, Cloud and Zak in the afternoon – if your brain freezes because I mentioned your boyfriend I am going to slap you mind. They told me about my limit breaks and I kind of freaked out and in the end Vincent had to actually get one of his demons to calm me down so I could breathe properly. Finally I kind of managed to accept what they had told me and the Director told me that Vincent had cleared his schedule for this week and I would be working with him all week to find out about my limit breaks and understand them and learn to use them. Once I had accepted that, he moved on to the next bit".

"They decided that as I have these limit breaks, staying in the Elite course and G Squad stage 1 is not a good idea. I am therefore now off of both of those courses". She took a pause to drink some more orange juice, giving Chrissie an opening. "Well at least now I know who it is I have to kill – how dare they pull you off of those courses!" said Chrissie in a rage. "It's ok, it's ok, it's all good" said Katherine. "Instead they have put me on to stage 2 of the G Squad program, I signed up last night and I start at 9am this morning." Chrissie's mouth now dropped open. "Plus, as part of the course, I am now an Acting Lieutenant and have access to G Squad headquarters." "Oh gods, Kate, that is wonderful!" screeched Chrissie, her mood now completely swung around. Katherine nodded. "That's not all – I have to relocate to G Squad personal quarters" – seeing Chrissie blush made Katherine realise she was right in her assumption about Chrissie having been there with Zak already – "and so I was given a room last night, allowed to choose the colour scheme etc which has already been ordered and I am now on the same floor as Vincent Valentine". It was now Kate's turn to blush slightly as she told her sister this bit.

"Today I get to go and order all the furniture etc and I guess I will be moving in sometime this week when it's all ready for me". Another gulp of orange juice with this time Chrissie remaining quiet and waiting for her to continue. "After that, Vincent told me a bit about his own limit breaks, the four demons, and then I ended up meeting Chaos!". Chrissie's mouth hung open again "you met him? How do you mean you met him, he's a demon!" she gasped. "I only saw a bit of him, Vincent let him have some control so he could use Vincent's eyes – Chaos's are black and yellow by the way – and his mouth so he could talk to me. He has a really nice voice and was so kind and friendly. Anyway, after he went back inside, I got really embarrassed as I started yawning at Vincent, but he told me that he thought one of his demons had actually been relaxing me so that I would sleep well and so he took me back to the outside and he was right – I slept like a log all night, thanks to his demon, Death Vigas. He's the one that calmed me down in the meeting too, by the way".

"So today I have to meet with Vincent to start learning about my limit breaks and pick out my furniture like I said" finished Katherine, beaming at Chrissie. "Wow – just wow, Kate. That is so awesome! I am so pleased for you, you so totally deserve all this". Katherine just continued to sit there and beam at her she was so wrapped up in what had been happening. Then suddenly something dawned on her. "Chrissie, you actually haven't said anything about my limit breaks" she said looking at Chrissie intently. "I haven't? Well of course there was so much you had to tell me, I'm still processing it all in at the moment" explained Chrissie, refusing to meet her eyes. "Chrissie, did you know about them?" asked Katherine. Just then the bell rang. "Oh sorry Kate, I have to run – I am so pleased at your news, I will see you at dinner and we can talk about it some more" she said, leaping up and grabbing her bag, then bending over Kate and hugging her before running out of the dining room. Katherine sat there absolutely stunned. Chrissie had known about her limit breaks, there was absolutely no doubt in her mind. Which meant that her parents also knew about them. All of a sudden Katherine lost her desire to go and call her parents before they left for work she was feeling a bit sick at her realisation and not really sure what to do next.

Katherine sat at the table for 10 minutes without even moving. She was shocked at the thought that her parents and Chrissie had known all about this but had never thought they should tell her, even though they knew she was applying to the WRO and in fact had even seen her completed application form. Which meant that they knew she had applied under false pretences in relation to her limit breaks. A shadow fell across her and she looked up at last. "Good morning Katherine – are you alright? We've been watching you since your sister left the hall over 10 minutes ago and you haven't moved an inch, you look rather shocked". It was Vincent. "I am shocked Vincent, I am – I've just discovered that Chrissie and my parents knew about my limit breaks but for some reason have never told me about them, even though they knew I had applied to the WRO without disclosing them. I shouldn't even be telling you this, I haven't even spoken to my parents yet, but I can't believe that they knew and have never told me".

Vincent realised that Katherine really was shaken up at the moment. "Host, take her out of here so people can't see her" said Chaos. "Come Katherine, let us walk back to your rooms now" said Vincent gently. Katherine looked at him for a few moments then seemed to realise what he had said to her and stood up. Together they began walking out of the dining hall towards her quarters. From the corner of his eye, Vincent noticed Chrissie going in to one of her classes, her eyes locked on to Katherine with a worried look on her face. In his opinion Katherine was right, Chrissie obviously did know something about them. He noticed that Chrissie was texting someone and he doubted it would be Zak, he was pretty sure it was their parents and Chrissie was letting them know that Katherine now knew about her limit breaks. While he was sure that Chrissie loved her sister, it made him wonder what else they knew that they had not told Katherine.

Arriving at her quarters, Katherine unlocked the door. Vincent reached over and pushed it open for her, guiding her in gently. He had been careful not to draw any attention to them while walking through the facility by touching her, but now they were out of sight Vincent no longer cared. He led her over to the couch and sat her down, taking a seat next to her this time. "Why would they not have told me?" she said quietly. "I don't know Katherine – it could have been for many reasons, may be they meant to tell you when you were older but then left it too late and suddenly you were applying to the WRO and they didn't know what to say to you" he offered, trying not to say anything at this stage that might upset her more than he had to. "It doesn't mean that what they did was right, but it also does not mean that they held it back deliberately, it may have been more due to their lack of understanding and uncertainty about what to do" he suggested. Suddenly Katherine's phone rang and she pulled it out and looked at it. "Apparently, now they would like to tell me" she said sarcastically and with that hurled the phone at the wall where it hit it hard and cracked along its side. He'd been right, he thought to himself, Chrissie had been texting them.

Suddenly Katherine burst in to tears and without even thinking about it, Vincent pulled her in to his arms and held her against his chest while she cried. This was the first time he'd held a woman like this in years, apart from Yuffie after Aeries had died. He didn't feel any form of arousal, all he felt was sorrow that this beautiful woman had been betrayed, albeit may be unintentionally, by the people that loved her. As her tears fell down her face and her shoulders shuddered as she gasped for breath, he felt a surge of rage towards her foster father. That he could have allowed this situation to evolve made Vincent feel so angry – it was wrong, just wrong, to allow his young foster daughter to discover it in the way that she had when he could have prevented it years ago.

After a few minutes, Katherine's crying stopped and she drew back from Vincent. "I am so sorry, you must think I'm an idiot acting like a small child" she said, wiping her tears from her face with her hands. "You are not an idiot and neither have you behaved like a small child – you have been in shock after receiving some extremely unbelievable news. Go and wash your face and dry your eyes" instructed Vincent. Katherine nodded and headed in to her bedroom, shutting the door behind her. Vincent wasted no time, pulling out his phone he placed a call and said "please come to Katherine's rooms now, she is in shock and needs an older woman with her". He listened to the reply and then disconnected the call. By the time Katherine reappeared from her bedroom there was a knock at her door, which Vincent strode over to and opened. Ms Black came inside and went to Katherine immediately, gathering her in her arms and nodding at Vincent to go. Vincent nodded in reply and exited the rooms, heading back across with the intention of seeing the Director immediately.

As he arrived in the main squad office, Zak came over smiling at him. "Morning Vincent how's Katherine today?" he asked good naturedly. "Why don't you ask her sister" replied Vincent, continuing on his way to the Director's office and leaving a stunned looking Zak in his wake. He knocked on the door and opened it without waiting for a reply and then immediately started talking angrily to Sturge. Sturge was used to Vincent and realised that something serious had happened for him to behave in this way. He allowed him to continue ranting in rage for 10 minutes and then decided it was time for him to calm down.

"Vincent, sit down please and calm yourself" he said holding Vincent's gaze firmly. Vincent stood breathing hard for a moment and then sat on the chair opposite Sturge, trying to get hold of his temper. He could feel Chaos raging inside too and the other demons were also not happy. "Where is Katherine now?" Sturge asked. "I escorted her back to her rooms from the dining room and then contacted Ms Black. She is with her at the moment" he replied. Sturge nodded, at least Vincent had contacted the most appropriate person to deal with Katherine for the time being. "And how is Chaos reacting at the moment?" Sturge asked. Vincent looked at him – he knew that Sturge was not a fool and had more of an understanding of Chaos than most people that had encountered him. "He is not happy" hissed Chaos from Vincent's mouth – Sturge understood, Vincent had allowed Chaos to reply himself to register his dissatisfaction.

Sturge also understood that when Vincent was angry, Chaos could sometimes calm him down and vice versa. When they were both furious it was not a good situation and Sturge had no doubt that the rest of Vincent's demons would also be fanning the fires at the moment. "Vincent, Chaos, you both need to understand that if you are going to help Katherine right now, she needs you to be calm. You cannot afford to get angry with her sister or her parents yourself at this moment in time – only Katherine can do that and she will need advice and guidance and you have been appointed as her trainers". Sturge had no hesitation in including Chaos as well. Sturge continued to sit there and watch Vincent. He was obviously in discussion with Chaos and Sturge just hoped that the two of them were not plotting something that he would have to veto. He was rather surprised at Vincent's reaction and felt that there was a lot more involved from his perspective than Sturge had been aware of.

Vincent got up again and began pacing around the room. "You saw how shocked Katherine was by all of this yesterday, Sturge, you saw how hard it was for her to come to terms with this, she succeeded and last night we had a good start to our session and now she's been hit for six by the one group of people that she would trust more than anyone else on this planet and left down in the gutter again" he raged. Sturge was actually beginning to wonder whether Vincent might even be approaching a transformation himself, Sturge had in all honesty never seen him so angry in the three years that he had known him. "What else have they been keeping from her? Do they know what happened to her parents? Were they in some way involved with Shinra themselves and placed in charge of her in order to provide information back to Shinra about her parents? I swear Sturge, if they have been betraying her all these years, they will suffer" and with those words Vincent suddenly drove his claw in to the wall of Sturge's office. He unleashed all of his strength and his claw disappeared right through it, being visible in the main office.

Cloud looked up and walked straight in without even bothering to knock. "Vincent, do we have a problem here?" he asked calmly, holding Vincent direct in his eyes and not wavering from it. Sturge let Cloud step in – he had no fear of dealing with Vincent, but he understood that Cloud had known him longer and had been involved with him closely over the years. Apart from Yuffie he doubted whether anyone else knew as much about Vincent as Cloud did. Vincent held Cloud's gaze and finally his rage seemed to begin to die down – Cloud continued to calmly look at him until eventually Vincent turned to Sturge and said "I'm sorry" and sat back down again.

Cloud lent against the wall with his arms crossed, reminding Sturge very much of Vincent, but he made no further comment and just stayed in the background in case he was needed. "Apology accepted, Vincent. We do need to decide how to move forward on this situation now" Sturge said.

"I think I need to go to Wutai" said Vincent. "Why Wutai?" said Sturge, trying to follow Vincent's line of thoughts. "Because Yuffie knows something about what happened to Katherine's parents. Their mothers were friends, Katherine's parents were warriors. They aided the Empress against Shinra and disappeared the night that Sepiroth killed Yuffie's mother. Yuffie said that Chekov and Gorky know what happened and she was going to ask them and get back to me – I think I can't wait for that, I need to go to her and talk to them". "Does Katherine know what happened?" asked Sturge. "When I spoke to Yuffie she was not sure whether Katherine would have known or not. Bear in mind that Yuffie was only 9 when her mother was killed and Katherine was 11 and according to Yuffie, Katherine was not in Wutai the night it all happened. Yuffie believes that Katherine's parents died that night, but she also thinks that Chekov and Gorky don't believe that. I need to find out what happened and how Katherine's foster parents are linked to what happened. My personal belief is that Katherine has never been told the truth of what happened that night" explained Vincent.

Sturge was silent for a moment, his mind going over the information that Vincent had given him. "Very well Vincent – you go to Wutai now. In the meantime, I am going to have Katherine's foster parents brought here for questioning and also her foster sister. They may not be involved as you suspect, but they obviously have more information that we need if we are going to assist Katherine in finding out the truth about her parents and her background. I will have the Highwind sent to collect her foster parents – I believe that it is currently in Nibelhelm as Shera has been spending some time with Tifa?" he asked looking at Cloud. Cloud nodded – "Cid was fetching Shera and the kids this morning to take them back to Rocket Town. I think Tifa should return with them, I believe she will want to hear about this as she and Yuffie have discussed something about it already". Vincent looked up at him surprised, Cloud shrugged "Yuffie and Tifa, Vincent – who knows what they have been up to".

"Very well" said Sturge "I will contact Highwind now and you head to Wutai. Let me know what you find out Vincent, it may be useful when I question her foster parents". Vincent nodded and stood up. Just then Sturge's secretary Rebecca buzzed through to the office. Sturge knew that Rebecca would have heard what happened with Vincent earlier on and therefore if she was buzzing through to him he knew it was important. "Yes, Rebecca?" he replied. "Sir, I have the Empress of Wutai on the phone, she wishes to speak immediately to you and Commander Valentine". Vincent swung his head around to look at Sturge and sat down again as Sturge said "put her through please Rebecca".

"Good morning, Yuffie" said Sturge. "Ken (Yuffie was one of the few not to bother with the Director's title since she was of course an Empress and – well, she was Yuffie), is Vincent there too?" she asked. "Yes, Yuffie" responded Vincent. "Good – listen, I am about to leave for Kalm now and I am bringing Chekov and Gorky with me. We'll be there in about an hour. Vincent, can you please tell Ken what I told you the other day, it will save time when we get there. You need to hear what they have to say. Oh, and you need to bring Katherine's foster parents in to Kalm urgently too". "Don't worry Yuffie, we are doing that this morning and they will be held accountable" said Vincent in a hard voice. "Don't be ridiculous Vincent, Katherine's foster parents have been protecting Katherine for years and have been in regular contact with Chekov and Gorky almost from the time Katherine first went to them. They are now at risk themselves and need our protection as well as having to fill in the gaps in the information we have" said Yuffie. Vincent looked rather taken aback. "One last thing – Katherine must be brought to G Squad now and held under your protection until we get there to explain what is happening – let no one else in Vincent, just G Squad and Katherine's foster parents and sister. Ok we are leaving now, I'll see you in an hour" and Yuffie disconnected her call. "Host, what is going on?" asked Chaos. "I don't know Chaos, but we will be finding out in about an hour from the sounds of it". "I'll go and fetch Katherine, Chrissie and Ms Black and bring them here" said Vincent standing again and heading towards the door. "I'll come with you" said Cloud and followed him out, slipping his sword on to his back as Sturge picked up his phone and contacted Cid Highwind. They all of them got the distinct feeling that something was not right but had no idea what was happening until Yuffie got there.

As Vincent and Cloud reached the outside of the building and turned towards Katherine's personal quarters, an enormous blast sounded across the facility followed by the sound of gun fire. The two of them broke in to a run as alarms began sounding around the facility and security guards began emerging in large numbers. Trainees were panicking – not all of them were warriors and to hear the sounds of gun fire within their training centre was not something they ever expected to happen. Other doors opened and Elite warrior trainees came out behind their instructors, weapons drawn and heading towards the sound of the gun fire. Vincent and Cloud continued on their way to Katherine's quarters, they realised that this was happening in relation to her for some reason and that whoever was attacking was trying to draw armed staff away from where Katherine was located.

From behind they could hear the rest of G Squad running after them, obviously given their target by Sturge as they too were ignoring the direction the main gun fire was sounding from. As they drew close to Katherine's building Vincent noticed Chrissie struggling with two men dressed in grey suits, with three of her fellow trainees collapsed on the floor around her. It looked as if they had gone to her assistance and Vincent had no idea if they were dead or just unconscious but he had no time now to check them. Looking behind him, he yelled to Zak and the others "assist Chrissie, get her in to G Squad" and continued on with Cloud.

The other four swung away and ran to Chrissie, Zak already realising that this must be happening because of Katherine. Darren and Troy were already firing, Zak and Kristian had their swords drawn and they were on top of Chrissie's attackers in seconds. The men let go of her and turned to face G Squad, but they were down immediately – they were now under attack by four of the mightiest warriors on the planet and were going nowhere. Zak grabbed hold of Chrissie's hand and started running with her to the G Squad building with Darren on her other side as Kristian and Troy cuffed her two attackers on the ground. Just then G Squad security guards arrived and hauled the men in grey to their feet, dragging them off to the G Squad holding cells – the grey men's involvement in the day's attacks was now over. Medical staff arrived and the three trainees who had assisted Chrissie were lifted on to stretchers and carried to the main medical facility, with four guards accompanying them. The rest of the guards followed Kristian and Troy who were also now headed after Vincent and Cloud.

Chaos was yelling at Vincent to move faster, his fury ripping through Vincent's body and mingling with his own. He and Cloud arrived at Katherine's rooms and burst in, preparing to launch in to attacks, but were greeted by an empty room with no sign of Katherine or her attackers. The room was in disarray with furniture thrown around and items smashed on the floor, Katherine had obviously fought back against whoever attacked her. Vincent heard some groans and running over to the table discovered Ms Black lying on the floor behind it. "I'm sorry Vincent" she gasped "there were 12 of them, I tried to keep them back until you could get here but they were just too strong". Vincent knelt next to her. "It's ok Ms Black, you did your best – we will find her. Just stay still and focus on your breathing, medical staff will be here soon". It was clear that the attackers had had no qualms about hitting Ms Black viciously she was covered in cuts and bruises and had bullet wounds on her shoulders and her stomach. She was bleeding heavily and Vincent realised she was severely injured. She had obviously managed to channel her limit break which had managed to shield a little, possibly enough to keep her alive so far.

Medical staff ran in and went to Ms Black immediately, starting to stabilise her so that she could be moved. "She is to be treated in G Squad" said Vincent and the medics nodded as they continued their work. Once she was able to be moved, they placed her on a stretcher and wheeled her back gently to the G Squad medical facility, with Vincent and Cloud walking behind her. Troy and Kristian were still in Katherine's quarters with some of the security guards looking for some evidence about the attackers, but they knew there would be none. A silence fell over the training facility to be replaced shortly after by the groans and cries from the wounded. The battle was obviously over and work began to rescue the injured and search for any of the attackers that would be held for questioning.

As Vincent and Cloud approached the G Squad building they could see that the grey men had attempted to attack it, however the G Squad security guards had over powered them and 10 men in grey suits were now huddled down on their knees, their arms cuffed behind them and weapons pointed at their heads. About 8 bodies were lying on the ground, all of them grey men. None of the security guards had been injured. The doors opened and G Squad medical staff met the emergency medics at the door. Ms Black was now in the safest hands and Vincent was hopeful that they would be able to save her. He and Cloud went up to the G Squad office – Sturge was standing there and looked at Vincent. Vincent just shook his head and walked across to where Chrissie was sitting on a couch with Zak, crying and calling for her sister. Zak looked up at Cloud who shook his head. Zak looked grim but continued to try and calm Chrissie down without telling her that her sister had disappeared. Vincent said nothing – while he was raging inside and also filled with worry about what had happened to Katherine, he knew he had to wait for Chrissie to calm down before they would be able to get any information from her.

Rebecca walked in to the main office. "Sir, the Empress is on her approach and will be landing in 22 minutes. She asked me to let you know that when word of the attack on the WRO reached her she sent one of her fleet to Cosmo Canyon and another to Corel. Both will be landing here within the hour. I understand that an escort has been sent to meet the Highwind and it will be landing here in about 40 minutes. Captain Highwind advises that your visitors will be arriving safely with him". Sturge nodded. He understood what the message from Yuffie meant – AVALANCHE was under way to G Squad. Looking at Vincent he now understood why – Yuffie obviously knew how Vincent felt about Katherine and AVALANCHE would be taking up arms to recover the woman that belonged to one of their members. That the member was Vincent and that it appeared he was finally beginning to move on with his life only to have this happen, Sturge knew AVALANCHE would be in full attack mode.

Rebecca looked over at Chrissie and noticed the way the men were stood helplessly around her. Walking to the water dispenser she poured a drink, gathered a large clutch of tissues and walked across to Chrissie, kneeling in front of her. "Chrissie, I know you are upset but your sister needs your help now". Chrissie cast her eyes on Rebecca. "The men need to be able to talk to you Chrissie and you need to calm down to allow them to do that. They need to help Katherine and they need your help to do that" she said calmly. She handed the tissues to Chrissie, who was now gulping large breaths of air and took the tissues and started wiping her face and trying to stop crying. "That's it, Chrissie, you are doing it well. Now drink this" Rebecca handed her the glass of water. Chrissie drank some of the water and then wiped her face again. Rebecca smiled at her gently "that's it Chrissie, well done. Are you able to let the men talk to you now?" she asked. Chrissie nodded. Rebecca stood up and walked back to one of the chairs near Chrissie and sat down in case they needed her assistance again.

Sturge walked in to his office and picked up his direct secure line to Reeve's office, the Commissioner answered immediately. "Ken, what news do you have?" asked Reeve. "I understand that attack was launched by approximately 70 armed men dressed in grey suits. At present no information as to their identity has been obtained. There are approximately 33 dead attackers, 26 captured and held for questioning and the remainder were able to escape under the cover of smoke bombs. 17 trainees have been injured the extent of their injuries has not yet been established. One Senior Staff has received serious gunshot wounds and is now in surgery. All remaining staff and trainees have been accounted for and teams have been set up to begin clearing up the damage to the facility".

Ken paused. "There is more, Reeve. It appears that the attacks were launched to provide cover for the abduction of Katherine de Ville, who was taken from her quarters by about 12 men. Ms Black was with her at the time and is now being treated for serious injuries in the G Squad medical centre. Katherine's foster sister Chrissie Buck was also attacked and three of her fellow trainees were injured when they went to her assistance. I believe they will make a full recovery but they were left unconscious. Chrissie was rescued by members of G Squad and her attackers are now in our holding cells under guard and awaiting questioning. Katherine's foster parents were already under way to Kalm when the attack occurred, being transported by the Highwind which is now also under escort by the WRO fleet".

"The Empress will be landing here in about – he glanced at his watch – 20 minutes and all members of AVALANCHE will be here within the hour". Reeve gasped at this news. "Why did they want Katherine de Ville?" he asked "and why would they risk attacking the WRO in order to reach her?". Sturge rubbed the back of his head. "I understand that it is in some way connected to the disappearance of her parents some years ago but at this stage I am not sure why, Reeve. Yuffie is bringing with her Chekov and Gorky as they are able to provide some information. They were already on their way when this attack happened. Yuffie had instructed that Katherine and her sister were both to be brought in to G Squad for protection and Vincent and Cloud were on their way to fetch them when the attack was launched. Once her parents and the rest of AVALANCHE are here we will be able to get the full story from Yuffie and her advisers and Katherine's foster parents. We will meet in the main G Squad room" he finished".

"I will be there in about 20 minutes Ken, once I have finished checking with the squad leaders on the extent of the injuries and damage" said Reeve. "I will see you then. Oh and Reeve there is an added complication to this situation". He paused again while Reeve waited expectantly. "It would appear that Vincent Valentine is in love with Katherine de Ville. He is – beyond anger, Reeve. I am sure you will understand now why AVALANCHE is on its way". He hung up the phone, knowing Reeve would know what he had meant – Vincent Valentine and Chaos would show no mercy to anyone that got in the way of them recovering Katherine.

Chrissie began her explanation to G Squad. "I met with Katherine for early breakfast this morning as she said she had some news for me. She told me that she had been appointed to stage 2 of her G Squad training and received promotion to Acting Lieutenant and that she would be moving her personal quarters over there too. She was so excited and so happy about it". Tears welled up in her eyes again but she managed to continue. "She also told me that Chaos had discovered she has some limit breaks and that Commander Valentine was going to be working with her to help her understand them and learn how to use them. I was terrified when she told me she knew about her limit breaks. My parents have known this moment would come for nearly 12 years and when Katherine came to the WRO they were so relieved, they thought she would be bound to be safe here".

Chrisse drank some more of her water. The members of G Squad were silent, waiting for her to continue. "Katherine suddenly realised that somehow I already knew about her limit breaks – the bell rang for class so I was able to try and make up some excuse without admitting I knew about them and I left for class, totally panicked. I texted my parents and told them she had made the discovery and that I had no idea what to do about it. They told me to stay calm and they would contact Katherine and talk to her and that they would also make arrangements to fly to Kalm on the first available flight they could get. I headed in to my first class but after it finished I had to go see Katherine again I couldn't bear the thought that she might be angry with me about her limit breaks".

She looked down a bit self consciously and continued "I knew that she had headed back to her quarters, I caught sight of her with Commander Valentine while I was texting our parents and I was sure she would still be there, so I decided to skip class and go and see her. I was almost there, when the sound of a huge explosion happened and then I could hear gun fire. I knew they were after Katherine, they must somehow have found out about the limit breaks, but I have no idea how since even I had only found out she knew an hour or so before. I screamed out for her and started running to her rooms when these two men in the grey suits ran up and caught hold of me. I struggled with them and three of the trainees noticed what was happening and came to help me".

The tears started flowing down her face again "the men hit them with these things they were carrying and they fell down to the ground – it was my fault, if only I had been honest with Katherine this morning and told her about the limit breaks she would have gone to G Squad and told Vincent, I know that she would have and none of this would have happened, but I did not know what to do and I was so scared when I found out she knew". Chrissie burst in to tears once more and Rebecca moved in again. "Well done Chrissie, well done, you have helped them a lot to understand why the attacks happened this morning. Your parents are on their way and will be here fairly soon – there is nothing more for you to do my dear, they will get things sorted out when they arrive" she said, putting her arm around Chrissie's shoulder and rocking her gently.

The men walked away leaving Rebecca to see to Chrissie. Vincent wondered if Chrissie was right – if she had told Katherine, would he have been the one that Katherine came to? Somehow he thought that she was right – Katherine trusted him, he knew. He closed his eyes tight and thought of Katherine – he hoped that she knew he would find her and would come for her. He was missing her already – and he knew in his heart that he was deeply in love with her – more than he had even loved Lucretia. Katherine was everything to him and without her he was nothing. Cloud placed his hand on Vincent's shoulder "we will find her, Vincent. We will find her" he said quietly. Vincent nodded and walked over to pour a coffee – he didn't want one but he needed to just do something, anything until her parents arrived and he could find out what was happening so that he knew where to go to find her.

The other members of G Squad seemed to be finally catching on to the situation between Katherine and Vincent and to say that Darren, Troy and Kristian were surprised was an understatement. While they liked Vincent and got on with him well, they had never known him show the remotest interest in any woman. Now it appeared that he was in love with a woman that he had known for under two weeks.

Vincent leaned against the wall and they could tell he was now in conversation with his demons. There seemed to be nothing else that they could do until everyone had arrived and they could begin to get to the bottom of what had happened.