8. G Squad is mobilised

Over the next 45 minutes everyone they had been waiting for, including Yuffie and her advisors, arrived. Yuffie's party was first, she walked in and hugged Vincent without saying a word to him and then went to talk to Chrissie and Rebecca while Chekov and Gorky stood with Reeve. Vincent wanted so desperately to get them to tell him what they knew, but he realised that they needed Katherine's parents here too and that it was better to wait for everyone to hear the entire story at once, since it was likely that each of them knew different bits that might build the overall picture.

Next to arrive were Katherine's parents, who walked in with Cid Highwind, his wife Shera and Tifa. Tifa and Shera also went straight up to Vincent and hugged him without saying a word and then went to stand with Cloud, he and Tifa talking quietly together. They were joined by Yuffie as Chrissie's parents went over to Chrissie. She fell in to the arms of her mother sobbing. Vincent was watching them and with his enhanced hearing he could hear what they said. Elizabeth Buck held her daughter and began talking to her while her father Edwin stood next to her, looking at her anxiously. "Oh mum this is all my fault, I just didn't know what to do when I realised Katherine knew about her limit breaks" she sobbed.

"But you did know what to do dear, you knew to contact your father and I immediately and you did. The only person who is at fault is the one that tried to harm you and took Katherine away. We were packing as soon as we heard from you as Katherine would not answer our calls, which we understood. We were about to leave to try and get on the first available flight when we were contacted by Cid Highwind and told he was on his way to fetch us. Nothing could have happened any faster, my dear – and no one could have thought that the one who has taken Katherine could move so fast. Even we had only just found out that Katherine knew about her limit breaks, dear. I know you are upset, we all are – but we have to focus now on giving them all the information that we can so that they can find Katherine and bring her home safely" concluded Elizabeth. Chrissie nodded and wiped her eyes, she was beginning to feel more confident now that her parents were here with information that could lead G Squad to Katherine.

They walked forward and Yuffie stepped up to greet them. "Mr and Mrs Buck, my name is Yuffie, I am a friend of Katherine's and Chrissie's" she said. Mrs Buck looked at her – "we know who you are Empress and we thank you for what you did today to try and protect our daughters. It seems that the links between your country and Katherine's parents continue". Yuffie nodded and started to lead them over to the seating area.

As they walked towards it, Elizabeth Buck looked at Vincent and stepped towards him. Vincent immediately unfolded his arms and straightened himself from the wall, looking at her intently. "Vincent, I have heard about you from my daughter Katherine. Thank you for the help that you have given her since she arrived here" she said. Vincent nodded "the help she needs now is for us to find her" he stated. Elizabeth nodded. "That is quite true, Vincent – but be sure that she knows that you will find her". "AVALANCHE and G Squad will do everything in our power to find her, I promise" said Vincent. "I know that Vincent, but that is not what I meant. Katherine knows that you will find her – she does not realise yet why she knows this, but she knows that Vincent will come for her. She has talked to me about you a lot since she met you". Elizabeth then moved off to join her husband who was being introduced to Sturge and Reeve and invited to sit. Vincent watched her as she moved away from him, his face expressionless but his chest burning. He was not entirely sure what Katherine's mother had meant but it seemed to him that she was indicating that Katherine had feelings towards him.

Both Nanaki and Barret arrived within the next 15 minutes and suddenly everyone was present. Vincent had resumed his leaning against the wall with his arms folded, his face hidden under the collar of his cloak again and his face expressionless. Nanaki and Barret nodded around the room as they came in and Nanaki walked over and sat next to Vincent, without speaking to him. He didn't need to – he and Vincent held a close friendship and Nanaki understood Vincent well. He knew that Vincent knew he was there for him and focused his eyes on Yuffie who had now stood up and walked to the front of the seating area to speak.

"Ok, we are now all here. Some of you know nothing at all about Katherine's parents so I will start by telling you about what I told Vincent three days ago. I met Katherine as we were walking through the courtyard and discovered her name was de Ville – she told me that her parents had worked in Wutai for the Army so I knew immediately who she was". She then proceeded to explain what she had already told Vincent. "Unfortunately, the day after I came back to Wutai we were involved in high level discussions with some visiting groups and so I did not get the opportunity to speak with Chekov and Gorky until this morning. As soon as they told me what they knew, I ordered the air fleet to be ready to leave in 10 minutes and contacted Ken and Vincent, telling them to bring Katherine and Chrissie in to G Squad immediately for protection and to have their parents flown here too as they were also at risk. 15 minutes later I received word of the attack on the WRO and therefore sent airships to fetch Nanaki and Barret knowing that the attack would in some way be linked to Katherine". She paused. "I think it probably best if Chekov takes up the story now and then the Bucks can join in when it reaches them".

Yuffie sat down and Chekov came to stand where she had been standing. "The night that Sephiroth and his SOLDIERS attacked Wutai was when Yuffie's mother, the Empress, lost her life defending both her daughter and Wutai. She was supposed to be meeting Jessica and Alexander de Ville but could not go when she heard SOLDIERS were attacking Wutai and so she sent Gorky and I to meet with them instead, secretly. We reached them at the appointed time and told them what was happening – they were so angry with old Shinra and also that they had left it too long before bringing the materia supplies to Wutai. They thought that they had been under watch all during the week before and had not dared to leave Junon where they were based, in case it led more danger to the Empress. Unfortunately they had been followed to Wutai the night they went. Sephiroth knew of their links with the Empress and he had been keeping watch on them for some time, unknown to them. It was him that they felt watching them the week before however he had been doing it for far longer it transpired".

Chekov looked sadly at Yuffie. "That night two young girls lost their mothers. Shortly after we met with the de Villes, the sound of SOLDIERS approaching reached us. We were able to lead them through some secret tunnels, however we could not bring the materia supplies and so the SOLDIERS found them, to Sephiroth's satisfaction. The de Villes knew that they were running out of time and so they begged us to try and help their 11 year old daughter Katherine, who was still in Junon and who they were scared old Shinra would harm in revenge for their work with the Empress. Jessica told us that their daughter had three limit breaks. Two magic spells named after her parents and one powerful and unique summons break that she had inherited from her mother, who was the only woman known to have it in existence. There was an ancient history of this summons break, it was channelled only by women and its roots lay back with the Cetra".

"Due to its links with the Cetra a scientist from old Shinra was desperate to gain access to it. He had already attempted to obtain it from her mother, but her mother was a warrior and a powerful one at that. When the scientist attempted to harm her and remove it from her, Jessica defended herself and injured the scientist badly and he was forced to flee Junon and hide. However, Jessica realised that he would recover and would try and extract it again. The summons break could be inherited by a daughter – that was how Jessica got it, she inherited it from her own mother. Jessica knew the scientist was aware of this and would no doubt try and obtain it from her daughter, if it was confirmed that she had it. Jessica and Alexander had therefore let the limit breaks lie dormant within their daughter and had no intention of revealing them to her until she was of an age and skill where she would be able to defend herself if she needed to. The night of the attack they realised that they were not going to be able to get away and therefore pleaded with us to locate their daughter in Junon and make sure she was kept safe from the scientist. We both gave them our word and then they told us to leave them as by now the SOLDIERS had discovered the tunnels we had used and were following us".

"Gorky and I took refuge in a hiding spot protected by Leviathan that the SOLDIERS were unable to find or access. Although we could not see the battle we heard it and we heard Jessica and Alexander's last words to each other before they were executed". He sighed. "There was no disappearance as the Junon Police had been led to believe afterwards. It was an execution and the de Villes did not escape. Their materia supply had already been captured and following their execution their weapons also vanished – no doubt stolen to be used by some of the SOLDIERS who found them. Their bodies were thrown in a deep pit in the caverns where we were – it was too deep for us to recover the bodies afterwards and their remains will still be there".

Elizabeth Buck had silent tears running down her face. Although she had heard this before from Chekov, her sorrow for her daughter Katherine ran deep. "After the attack on Wutai and the loss of the Empress we were, as you will know, under the control of old Shinra and Godo had seemingly lost all interest in trying to recover the country. He could not believe that Shinra would in fact have harmed his beloved wife like that and he realised that he had betrayed her with his fear of Shinra. Although he recovered somewhat later on, for a long time he was focused only on the loss of his wife. We were kept busy trying to help rebuild the damage that had been sustained following the battle and trying to organise a system of governing until Godo was strong enough to take over again. We were also refused permission from Shinra to leave Wutai. It was therefore 12 months before we were able to try and seek out the de Ville's daughter and we were convinced that she would have been taken by Shinra in that time and that we had failed in our promise to the de Villes".

"We went to Junon quietly, keeping a low presence and were actually successful in not being discovered in the city. Some of our ninjas made enquiries for us, in disguise naturally and we found that the de Villes had in fact been fortunate. The night they went to Wutai, their daughter was on a sleep over at the house of one of her friends, another 11 year old girl who was the daughter of a senior staff member at Shinra. It would appear that one of the few people in Junon who actually knew what had happened to the de Villes the previous night went to that family's house. Whilst no one would have supported the de Villes in what they chose to do, it seems that they had many influential and quite powerful friends who were not going to stand back and allow their daughter to be harmed. They therefore came up with a story that the de Villes had mysteriously disappeared and lodged a missing persons report with the Police, who launched a formal investigation. The friends also made sure that the disappearance and lonely, left behind child were public knowledge".

"While the former President of Shinra would not have cared about killing an 11 year old child, he was a politician and realised that there was no point in causing unnecessary unpleasantness over the child. He therefore ignored it. Katherine stayed with various family friends until her existence was more or less forgotten by the former President and then they made the process to find her a decent foster home. While any number of people would have had her stay with them, they felt that to do that posed too much of a risk for Shinra to remember her and may be decide to use her for something. By dropping her in to the foster care system it was unlikely that Shinra would bother to try and search for her. She was therefore homed with the Bucks".

"Gorky and I then had to come to a decision. The child was still at risk from the scientist that was after the summons break. If Shinra knew she had it, she would be protected from him but would no doubt be exposed to even more risks directly from Shinra's science department. We had no choice but to place our trust in her foster parents – it was a huge risk, but we decided that if we did not approach them the chances of Katherine being taken from them by someone at some point in the future, whether Shinra or the scientist, outweighed the risk of the foster parents running to Shinra themselves. We managed to arrange a meeting with them. We decided that being completely honest with them was the only way we could gain their trust and their help. We therefore told them who we were, who Katherine's parents were and what had happened to them and the risk she was at from Shinra".

"They were horrified to think that Shinra might actually attempt to harm a child and gave us their word that they would do whatever they could to protect her. We then explained to them about her limit breaks and the fact that a scientist would try and find her and that if he was successful, it was most likely she would die as a result of what he would end up doing to her. The Bucks remained adamant that they would do all in their power to protect the child. We left them with the means to contact us and we have remained in regular contact with them ever since, although Katherine has no knowledge of this and still has no awareness of what happened to her parents that night. She was of the belief that they had disappeared, most likely having been killed by some monsters during some research trip and after they had been unheard of for 7 years they were legally declared dead".

The room was silent after Chekov had finished speaking. The events surrounding the death of the Empress at Sephiroth's hands were known to them all but none of them had known about Katherine's parents apart from the Bucks and to a very limited extent Yuffie. Not even Chrissie had known this part of the story. Chekov sighed and looked at the Bucks. "I think that the rest of the story is yours" he said simply and sat down. The Bucks nodded and both rose to their feet.

"When Chekov and Gorky came to see us, we struggled to understand and believe what we were hearing. Although we knew bad things associated with Shinra we were simply ordinary people engaged in a normal life, working and raising a daughter and more recently, a foster daughter. Suddenly we were confronted by advisors to Lord Godo and heard of the murder of the Empress and the execution of the parents of the child we were caring for. It was the day our eyes were opened to what Shinra really was" stated Edwin Buck. "While we may not have been the bravest or strongest people on the planet, there was no way in hell that we were going to allow Katherine to be taken from us and harmed without us doing everything in our power to prevent it. When Chekov went on to tell us about the limit breaks, we were even more determined".

"We had heard of them although we were not really familiar with them and neither had we heard of Cetra back then either. We did start to research everything about it though, as we felt that the more we knew the greater our chances of protecting Katherine. We agreed with Chekov and Gorky that probably the best thing we could do to help Katherine was to continue to try and keep her limit breaks dormant, as her parents had done. From the research we were able to do – bearing in mind we had to do this without attracting attention so it took us some time and we were too worried to make the research too detailed – we understood that the trigger for channelling limit breaks was the extreme situation. It therefore seemed to us that one of the most effective ways of preventing this was to keep Katherine in a life style that she would be unlikely to experience it in and to try and teach her strong self control over her emotions and her feelings."

"Katherine may come across as warm and friendly, but be aware that she can also be completely ruthless and cold when the situation requires it of her – in a way that Chrissie could never manage. This was in part due to the training we acquired for her but also, we think, in part to her inheritance from her parents. We believe that she is a lot like them although we never met them and Cheko and Gorky have never met her, so we have had no one to make the comparison to us".

"When Katherine was about 14, we received a visit from a man who claimed to be an old family friend of Katherine's parents and wanted to meet her. We were immediately suspicious of this since none of her parent's friends had been advised by the foster care system who or where her foster parents were. Eventually the visitor made some reference to limit breaks. I have to say that Elizabeth is responsible for having provided him with a response that sent him away at the time. She told him that she had heard the authorities make some reference to that before, something that was linked to Katherine's parents but she was not sure what. She was able to tell him that Katherine had been subject to some thorough testing on her health and the results had shown that she was a completely normal, healthy girl. The visitor then said that he was glad to hear it, but that it was possible that some of the problems could emerge later in life and he was sure we would understand his desire to remain in touch with us. Elizabeth agreed and told him if he would like to call her every few months she would of course let him know if any changes occurred that we thought he should come and look at. She then got rid of him before the girls came home so that he did not actually meet Katherine that day".

Elizabeth then took up the story. "He told me that his name was John Brown – as if anyone would ever believe that. He made contact with me every three months up until her 18th birthday and then after that only very rarely. We think the reason for that is that from our research most young women would be in control of their summons breaks by the age of 16 and definitely by the age of 18. He therefore probably assumed that she had not in fact inherited the break. Our research shows that it is not always the eldest daughter that inherits the break and it has in fact skipped some generations quite broadly. We think that he came to the conclusion that the break had skipped her, but that it might appear in her daughter one day so he decided not to do anything to her that might prevent this from happening. Plus the fact that when I made up the story of this testing she had been through he was obviously given the impression that Shinra was still involved with her, so he knew that he had to be careful. Otherwise I am sure he would simply have taken her and kept her under watch until she was 18 and then most likely he would have had her impregnated so that he could see if her child inherited it. He might even have simply raped her himself".

Vincent's blood ran cold when Elizabeth said this. The thought of someone taking his beloved Katherine and raping her to sire a child on her was horrifying. He would then have run more tests on her daughter in the hope of extracting a summons break from her and no doubt then killed both Katherine and her daughter after with no hesitation.

"Once Shinra came down and the world began again after the death of Omega and Meteor, he could have taken her again then, but we made it harder for him to access her I think. She commenced her own warrior training and if he had managed to see her, he would have known that she was highly skilled and the chances of him succeeding were somewhat reduced. Far better for him to then wait until she had a daughter of her own when memories of the breaks etc would be far in everyone's memory and it would have been a lot easier for him to simply slip away with a baby. When Chrissie was 15, we did tell her about the limit breaks and taught her how to be careful around Katherine and to also make sure she told us if ever she thought that they were being followed. She understood the risks to Katherine and was quite happy to be helping us watch over her. When the girls headed to the WRO we actually thought that the risk to Katherine must be reduced considerably. I can't believe how stupid we were, even to the point of allowing her to fail to disclose her limit breaks on her application form as a means of added protection for her in case anyone managed to gain access to the form to see if we had been telling the truth about them or not".

Elizabeth and Edwin looked at each other. "I think that is all we can tell you. There is no doubt in our minds that the one that has taken Katherine today is the same one that came to us first when she was 14. But his only reason for so doing would be because he knew she had found out about her limit breaks and since only herself and G Squad knew, we have no idea why he took her today" concluded Edwin. The two of them then went and sat next to Chrissie again. Silence filled the room. "How could they have known?" asked Reeve.

This question was puzzling both Vincent and Chaos as well as others in the room. "Let us just run over the series of events again" said Sturge. "The breaks were first mentioned between Vincent and Chaos – and since their conversations take place within Vincent's mind, no one could have overheard them even if they had managed to access sound in his room somehow. Vincent then came to me in my office and told me. The only ones present therefore on the whole floor were G Squad and my secretary, Rebecca in the room next door to me". Rebecca nodded, she understood Sturge was working things through, not attempting to blame it on her. "The next discussion was with Vincent, Zak, Cloud, myself and Ms Black in my office. Ms Black would be the only one who was not a member of G Squad. The next discussion was between Vincent and Katherine in his unit – I refuse to believe anyone would have been able to achieve access to conversations in G Squad personal quarters. Then the last conversation was between Chrissie and Katherine at around 6.40am this morning, which ended when the 7.15am bell rang. The text message between Chrissie and her parents was about 10 minutes later but even if it had been intercepted, there is no way they could have organised an attack like that just over an hour later" summarised Sturge.

"When did Katherine first announce her desire to join the WRO?" asked Vincent. "Both the girls made their decision about 4 years ago" replied Elizabeth. "And how long has Ms Black been here?" he asked. Reeve looked at him "3 years". It was obvious, she had been sent here then to establish herself within the hierarchy of the training facility, a job that she had performed well. She was the first choice to Sturge when he decided it was suitable to have a female member of staff present during the conversation with Katherine. "I would imagine that she contacted her scientist when she left the meeting around 4pm, to let him know that the summons break had been confirmed within Katherine and that he needed to get to her fast. Once she was within the G Squad facility it would have been near impossible for her to have been abducted, especially as she would have been with Vincent most of the time" said Sturge. "And I further assisted her this morning by asking her to come to Katherine, so that she was able to provide her exact location to the abductors and even ensure that the two of them were there alone" concluded Vincent.

Cloud looked up. "And once she had done that, they had no further use for her, which was why she was viciously attacked this morning and is lucky to still be alive" he said. "Where is she now?" asked Yuffie. "Under guard in the G Squad medical centre" replied Sturge bitterly. Without a word both Yuffie and Tifa got up and left the room. Vincent made as if to follow them, but Nanaki spoke for the first time. "Leave it to them, Vincent. They will find out his name for us".

Elizabeth looked up. "The only thing that I can tell you about him is that I am sure he did once work for old Shinra because of something he once said and that I believe his nickname is Gastbury" she said. "Host, what does that name convey to you?" asked Chaos. "Nothing Chaos, I have never heard of it before" said Vincent. "You are not thinking outside of the square, Host. There are two words in there if you think about it. Gast and Bury. Who wanted Professor Gast dead?" said Chaos. Realisation suddenly hit Vincent. "His nephew Arnon Davies, who Professor Gast made sure lost his job following the way he doctored some scientific reports as a means to gaining access to working under Hojo as a trainee when he was about 25" replied Vincent. "Exactly" said Chaos. "And what did Davies do that ended up impressing Hojo, even though Gast lost him his job in the end?" "He created a mako related substance that enhanced his life span by 50 years" said Vincent, suddenly realising what Chaos was getting at. Davies was still young enough to be able to abduct Katherine and carry out the work he had been attempting to do for so many years, even though he would only have started to have access to the summons break when he learned of Katherine in foster care 10 years ago.

"I know who the scientist is" stated Vincent out loud. Everyone looked at him. "His name is Arnon Davies and he is the nephew of the late Professor Gast. He has increased his life span by 50 years and is quite able to do what the Bucks have been describing to us" said Vincent. Zak spun around on his chair and hit his computer, calling up Arnon Davies within seconds. "We have him" said Zak. "Where is he located?" asked Sturge. "No records of his location, damn" said Zak. "25 miles NE of Gongoga in a laboratory created within some caverns that have never been located on any map" said Tifa suddenly, returning in to the room with Yuffie. Cid grabbed his phone "get the Highwind fired up, we will be leaving as soon as AVALANCHE and G Squad are on board" he stated and ended the call. "We got the bastard, Vincent – we'll have her back very soon now" Cid stated.

The room suddenly burst in to energy as G Squad and members of AVALANCHE grabbed their weapons and supplies from the store cupboards and started heading out, with Vincent flying ahead of them towards the Highwind. He was going to get Katherine and he was going to kill Arnon Davies, with no question.

Sturge was already on his phone getting the backup squads in place. The air fleet was notified and the fleet would be ready to go in the air within 15 minutes and the Turks were also preparing to head to Gongoga.