What If

Disclaimer: Still don't own, not in the slightest

Authors note: These next series of chapters are all interlinked, was going to do them as one big chapter but changed my mind and decided to break them up a little bit. Hope you enjoy and reviews much appreciated and received.

Lost Children

Vincent woke to a soft tapping sound in the early hours of the morning, vaguely aware that he was still inside the lab. His vision was hazy from whatever had been done to him the previous day and all he wanted to do was sleep but it seemed that the fates weren't going to be that charitable tonight. The tapping sound came again and he turned him head, squinting at the image but barely recalling who the figure was. The green swirl wasn't helping in the slightest, obscuring the colours even further than he had expected it to. Suddenly he trashed out, trying to break the glass in front of him as his brain registered that he was in a tank filled with Mako. Not a place he ever wanted to wake up in ever again.

The figure moved to one side, obviously trying to deactivate the machine but being repelled back by something there. Vincent hadn't felt as useless in his life as he banged on the glass, desperate to break through it but finding himself completely unable to do so. The figure outside seemed undecided as to what to do and looked around desperately for anyone that could help him. Of course there was no one because he had been assigned to just watch the man in the tube before the Turks came to transport him away along with one of the other subjects. There was something horribly cold about being in the room with the strange floating man, but Cloud had tried to push his thoughts aside and just continue on with his duty.

But that had changed when Vincent, or more correctly Chaos but the blond haired cadet didn't know such things, had suddenly started scratching on the glass in an attempt to weaken it. Naturally Cloud had tried to ignore it but got to curious for his own good and decided to do something which he knew Zack would do. Tap on the glass. This only worsened the situation and made the young cadet worried that something horribly bad was about to happen. The doors whooshed open and quickly Cloud returned to his station, hoping that no one would have noticed that he had left it.

Hojo strode in, followed by a couple of assistants who were dragging a girl with shoulder length black hair and bright red eyes along after them. She wasn't resisting their attempts to do so, more just not moving and acting rather like a rag-doll. They deposited her on the ground when instructed and even though he wasn't supposed to take any notice, Cloud couldn't help but glance towards the girl who just sat there lifeless. He noticed the bruising, scars and trails of tears which had created two white lines down her usually tanned features. Even like this, barely three years after he had last seen her, Cloud recognised the girl as Eisa. One of the friends that Zack had been forced to watch being captured when Gonaga was searched.

However there was something far more pressing in the eyes of the blond, something which he knew spelt trouble for all but why completely eluded his conscious brain. The girl's arms and part of her right leg was covered in a long dark black bruise which seemed to twist its way around the muscle and flesh as if it was a strange entity. He had seen plenty of bruises whilst training, so he knew a thing or two about them but this was completely alien. Normally bruises just looked like black and blue blobs that stayed still until they became smaller and eventually faded. If anything this thing looked like it was growing, becoming bigger and more deadly by the passing second. Hojo and the scientists were conversing, hardly paying any attention to him so he decided to take a risk and lean down close to the girl.

"Are you all right?" he asked, hoping that she would turn towards him despite how quiet he was keeping his voice at that precise moment in time. The girl didn't even flinch, her head hung low and eyes fixed firmly on the floor. Or maybe they were closed, it was impossible to tell. A loud bang behind him cause Cloud to turn around, the man – Vincent if he recalled rightly from Zack's description of him – was yelling something behind the glass and desperately appearing to try and break it. It was a worrying thing indeed and the cadet rose, locking eyes with the dangerous red and yellow mix before shaking his head slightly.

Without really thinking what he was doing, Cloud mouthed the words "We're going to get you out of here" to the man but couldn't tell if Vincent understood or not. Mentally he glanced up at the clock, hoping that everything would go to plan but brought back to the situation at hand by Hojo's abrupt questioning of, "What are you doing?"

Cloud indicated Eisa with a tilt of his head, "Sir. I thought the girl was going to be sick so I went to check on her sir" he said automatically. He was pretty sure that the other wouldn't believe him and was rather surprised when the scientist came across and forcibly raised the girl's head which caused a hiss to escape her mouth. After a couple of seconds looking at her, the man released her and wiped his hands disdainfully on a cloth handed to him by one of the assistants.

The glare was enough to tell Cloud all he needed to know and he went back to his duty silently, praying to any deity out there that the risky plan would work.

Zack's words had only been the top ten per cent of the iceberg when it came to this situation.

Snapping the PHS closed in frustration, Zack continued his way around the barracks as carefully as possible, hoping that no one would stop and question him as to what he was up to this time. Granted most of his comrades wouldn't even bat an eyelid at him being around the first class quarters at this time of the evening, but there was still a chance that some upstart may just thing he was up to one of his old tricks again. Granted he really wished he was this time but it most certainly wasn't and to add insult to injury the lie he told would be added to the file marked 'deserter' or even worse 'traitor'. Two words that he never wanted to ever be called but he was pretty close to doing so now.

However at least he wouldn't be alone, he was going to save his two oldest friends in the world – and their father – and get the hell out of Shinra before they could even work out what had happened to them. Everything had been set up, organised and finalised with the help of Avalanche at Seventh Heaven and all he had to do now was get his stuff ready and be prepared when the distraction began. The only problem was that right this second he couldn't find two of his fellow conspirators, Cloud was tactfully assigned to Hojo's labs, but Angeal and Genesis had not turned up at the agreed meeting place which had Zack worried.

He'd waited for a fair amount of time before even attempting to ring either of them, but upon receiving nothing but the cold electronic voice of the network telling him that neither PHS was in use at the moment nor to try again later, fear had struck deep within his heart. So he was heading to the one place that they could be at this time of night and hoping that nothing untoward would happen on the way. Thankfully it didn't and he was surprised when the door to their room opened up remarkably easily as he knocked on it.

Stepping in, he stared around and tried to figure out just what was going on. The place looked like it hadn't been touched in years, which had him highly worried indeed but it was all clean and sterile. He checked the draws, the cupboards and the kitchen areas to find absolutely nothing. Even the bathroom looked immaculate which was pretty good going considering most SOLIDER bathrooms ended up looking like something out of a horror movie.

"What the hell guys?" he asked quietly before grabbing his PHS again and dialling a number which Angeal had given him just before he had left to go to Midgar all those years ago. The raven haired man virtually jumped out of his skin when he heard the ringtone in the room with him and quickly he spotted it on a bedside cabinet. Actually it was hidden in the small useless, in Zack's opinion, alcove which explained why he had missed it the first time around.

Walking over, he fished the phone out before flipping it open and just catching the scrap of paper that fell out of the closed metal. Carefully he opened it and stared in horror at the written words, hastily done and no where near as scrawled as Angeal's writing usually was.

All it said was five words which explained everything and nothing at the same time.

Don't look for us Zack.

Glancing up at the ceiling, as if it would give him some form of answer, Zack frowned at the ominous dark stains on the otherwise dull white surface. Looking down at the carpet he noticed that a couple of sections were several shades lighter as if something had been cleaned up.

Backing out slowly, he closed the door and pocketed the phone. He didn't know the details of what had happened but guessed that if he and Cloud were caught then they would suffer the same retribution as well. Gulping he turned and quickly headed away, knowing that this was going to be the only chance he was ever going to get.