Cloud was left staring at the closed, locked door. He took off towards it but was tripped before he could get there. The remaining guard laughed at him until Cloud sprang to his feet and grabbed him by his shirtfront. "What's he doing in there?" Cloud demanded.

"Wouldn't you like to know," the man said with a chuckle.

Cloud turned and shoved him hard up against the door. "WHAT IS HE DOING TO HER IN THERE?!" he thundered, running on pure adrenaline now as the sweat and blood trickled down his face. But the guard quickly regained control of the situation as he pushed Cloud off and the small blonde staggered back.

"I'm afraid that's highly classified. But don't worry," the man said, reaching into his shirt pocket. "We'll keep you entertained." He withdrew a materia and held it aloft. Cloud's eyes widened as he saw it glow red—a summon. They were going to bring in a monster to keep him out—and finish him off. "Well I'd better get going before tonight's star attraction shows up," the man said casually as the materia glowed brighter. "Here, you might need this." He tossed Cloud a small tarnished sword that looked to be at least a couple of decades old.

The swordsman stared at it as he heard the man leave and lock the door; it had one rusty materia slot but it was the most pathetic weapon he had ever seen. Materia…suddenly Cloud remembered the materia that Zack had swiped. The last one had ended up in the rubble outside and Cloud had found it just before being recaptured. Is it still there? He reached in his pocket and his fingers closed around the small orb within as he heard an almighty crash, and looked up to see a giant hole appear in the ceiling and the right wall. Flames shot around the perimeter of the room and an Ifrit suddenly towered over him. Cloud readied the measly sword, gripping it tightly as he stared down the beast with bleary eyes, breathing hard. His hands were shaking, his knees weak as the sweat raced down his body. He had to do this…he had to live. And behind that locked door was the one reason why.

Vincent was back in human form as he snuck Zack's mom and Denzel into his room at the inn where he'd been staying while on his mission from Reeve.

"What do we do now?" Denzel asked as he and Zack's mom climbed onto the bed.

Vincent turned on the news on the television and then joined them. "We wait." Neither of the other two really understood what that meant. Neither asked.

The woman on the screen was on the scene in Gongaga, reporting on the fires. "The number of casualties is yet unknown, but as you can see, the wildfires have almost completely destroyed the village," she was saying in her best concerned voice. "Shinra is doing its best to get the situation under control."

"Wildfires indeed," Zack's mother grumbled. "Propaganda-spewing B.S. artists, the whole lot of them. How stupid do they think we are?"

"Those in power always rely on public ignorance," said Vincent simply.

"Here we have some footage from a few moments ago," the news anchor in the studio said. The image of a couple of burning houses appeared on the screen.

"Hey," said Denzel to Zack's mom, pointing to the one on the left. "Isn't that your house?"

"Yes…yes it is," she replied. They stared for a moment at the last place they had seen Zack and Aeris alive. Suddenly in the background they heard rapid gunfire coming from the house, which the reporters conveniently failed to mention as they quickly cut away. The boy and the old woman looked at each other, eyes wide. Vincent had shown no reaction, and as they turned to him his cell phone rang from the nightstand where he had left it behind earlier. He flipped it open to see Reeve's name on the screen. He rolled his eyes slightly, as if he knew what Reeve was going to say, and held the phone to his ear.

"Valentine," Vincent grumbled.

"Vincent, did you find it?"

"No. Complications arose before I could complete the investigation," the cloaked man said, eying his two curious onlookers. "Several complications."

"What do you mean, complications? Vincent, this was a search and destroy mission," said the urgent voice on the other end. "The consequences of them falling into the wrong hands could be—"

"I'm aware of the hazards."

"What happened?"

"I can't fully explain at this time. I'll need some backup."

"I can't help you unless you tell me what's going on," said Reeve. "What exactly do you want?"

"For starters," Vincent replied, "transportation."

By the time Zack ran out of his house carrying Aeris, the town looked more like a war zone than anything else. It was Nibelheim all over again. It was probably a pretty stupid idea to put his mother and Denzel in the care of an unstable Chaos, but at least they weren't here. He dashed to the other side of what was left of the town square and took shelter in the back of an abandoned armored truck, one of the few things he could find that wasn't on fire. He sank to his knees, catching his breath for the first time in what seemed like hours. He felt the full weight of Aeris' motionless body in his arms. This was no dream. I am getting so plastered when I get back to Seventh Heaven, Zack thought. Suddenly the engine revved. Shit! He laid Aeris down and sprang to his feet. Who the hell was driving? As the truck took off, a third passenger jumped in from the back, rifle first. With one swift move Zack seized the barrel of the gun with both hands and flung its bearer to the far wall. The soldier looked up to see his own weapon being pointed at him. Then the two men recognized each other.

"You!" they both said at once. It was the Shinra grunt that had escaped the house. He threw a nervous look at Aeris.

"That's right, admire your work why don't you," Zack said sarcastically. Then a voice was heard from the man's phone, which had gone flying.

"Samson?" It was the driver. Zack picked it up, still aiming at the gun straight ahead with his other hand. "Cadet Samson do you copy?"

"Oh he's here alright," Zack said, "and he's got about five seconds to give me one good reason why I shouldn't blow his face off."

"Who is this?!" the voice on the other end demanded.

"It's that crazy prick from the house!" cried the soldier sitting on the floor.

"Were you even listening?" Zack snapped at his target. He realized the man on the phone must be the one he had knocked out on first entering the house.

"You're bluffing," Samson replied.

"Oh really?" Zack fired a round and bounced some bullets off the soldier's helmet and kneecap armor.

"Ah!" the grunt flinched.

"Where're we going?" Zack demanded into the phone.

"Back to the base," the driver said. "What the hell do you want?"

"I want you to keep driving. Stop to come after me, and your friend's dead." With that Zack hung up and discarded the phone. The man eyed Aeris again.

"Is she—"

"Five seconds," Zack repeated darkly, raising the rifle again. "I'm waiting."

"You're crazy!"

Finger slipped in beside trigger. "Four."

"I won't be threatened by some lowlife fugitive!" The gun was cocked.

"That's lowlife ex-SOLDIER First Class to you." Zack pressed the gun against the man's forehead, pinning him to the wall. "Three. Two and a half."

"Y-your friends!" the man blurted out suddenly.

"What?" Zack lowered the weapon slightly, surprised that the man had actually come up with something.

"Your AVALANCHE friends. I saw them before we left the base. One of them was a woman right?"

"Yeah, so what?"

"I-I think I know what might've been done to them."