Is this ANOTHER chapter update, Jaydee? Why, yes it is. Don't you have anything better to do with your life right now, Jaydee? Of courrrrrrse not. Here ya go.

Songs for the chapter: (1) Keep Quiet by Wise Children; (2) Nose Grows Some by Thom Yorke; (3) Draw Your Swords by Angus and Julia Stone; (4) Curse the Love Songs by The Hawk in Paris.

Chapter XXXVII

"So. How do you like our leader?" Galen asked, his voice breaking into Cloud's thoughts. Cloud didn't bother to look back. He'd been alone about fifteen minutes, Genesis having departed, leaving him with his contemplations. His questions. He took to staring out the windows instead.

"We're not in Midgar," he said back.

"Correct," Galen confirmed.

"Where are we then?" Cloud inquired.

"North," was all Galen had for him. The evasiveness was starting to annoy him.

"Is it a secret?" Cloud spoke sharply and Galen chuckled before coming to stand in front of him, leaning back against the window he'd been looking out of.

"You ever hear of Cile?" the man asked him and he shook his head. "No. No one has. The town was initially a mining town. Hundreds of miles of mine tunnels wind through the earth beneath it. When the mine ran dry the townspeople lobbied to have a mako reactor put in just to save the town to bring in some form of money. The reactor malfunctioned early in its operation and spilled mako into the water system."

"Sounds like a major disaster," Cloud remarked. "Wouldn't something like that be in the news?"

"It wasn't a singular event. The reactor was slowly leaking mako in liquid and gas form for close to five years. Shinra ignored the maintenance requests. A quarter of the population perished in those five years before Shinra produced a payout for silence and moved the survivors elsewhere."

"How long ago was this?" Cloud asked in shock.

Galen thought about it. "About…fifteen, twenty years ago." He sensed Cloud's next question before he'd asked. "It's safe now and the water we use is filtered and cistern-sourced so there's nothing to worry about."

"But the town is still deserted?" Cloud questioned.

"A town without production won't survive," Galen said. Cloud nodded but was silent as Galen observed him. He was thinking about a lot of things. Things Galen had said, things Genesis had said. And just things. They all weighed on him. "You look tired," Galen commented and he nodded again. He was tired. His body was also aching more than when he'd woken up earlier. "Dove will bring you back downstairs where you can get some rest," the man suggested.

"Downstairs," Cloud repeated. "You gonna have me locked in?" he asked without looking up at Galen.

"You tell me," Galen said, drawing Cloud's eyes up to look at him. "As far as you walking out of here goes, I'm not worried. You're tagged," Galen said nodding his head toward the monitor on Cloud's ankle, "and you know who is at risk if you do decide to wander. My concern is for my crew. Are you a risk to them?"

Cloud shook his head a little. It wasn't something that had even come to his mind, though he had been willing to injure Dove to get out of the bunker. He'd been desperate then, worried about his life without access to his medications. "I don't want to be locked up," he said and wiped away fast a single tear that had slipped from his left eye to his cheek. "That's all," he said a little quieter. The thought of being locked up in a windowless room like he had been for years at the mansion was one that frequently transformed his dreams to nightmares. He felt captive enough without that added measure.

"Then you have nothing to worry about," Galen assured him. The man gave him a small smile that he almost returned. He stood up when Galen gestured for him to follow him out of the room. Galen stopped at the doorway to allow him to walk out ahead of him. Cloud felt one of the man's hands on his shoulder, leading him out to the hall as Galen asked him if he was hungry at all.

When Cloud was brought down to the bunker, he observed immediately that any evidence he'd been down there previously was nearly invisible. All the files and video footage from the mansion was still there, though it had all been packed away again into the boxes that had been brought in. The bathroom was cleaned of all traces of his illness he'd suffered while in there. He'd been too tired when first brought down there again that he didn't make mention of it. When he woke again, Dove was sitting in the small living room area reading through a newspaper. He came to sit in the chair next to the couch where Dove was sitting.

"Morning," the guard said, glancing up only briefly before returning to the paper.

"Were you out here the whole night?" Cloud asked him and he shook his head.

"Just came down a half hour ago with your breakfast if you want it," he answered, and gestured toward the covered tray on the coffee table.

"Is this your sole job?" Cloud asked then and Dove looked up at him again with a questioning expression. "To be around me nearly 24 hours of the day?" Cloud elaborated while leaning forward to reach for the tray on the table and pull it closer toward him.

"To guard you?" the man said back to him. "Yeah," he said with a short chuckle.

"How much you get paid for that?" was Cloud's next question while he was taking the cover from the tray to inspect what had been brought down.

"Zip," the man replied to his surprise.

"Nothing," Cloud said and he shook his head in confirmation. "Why are you here then?" he couldn't help but ask.

"The cause. Same as everyone else," he said a little vaguely.

Cloud looked over at the stacked boxes across the room before looking again at the plate in front of him. It was real food. Better than most of the breakfasts he'd made for himself in the past months.

"Did you clean up in here after I was..." Cloud began to question and Dove looked up from the paper once more. "Brought upstairs," he finished and the man gave a short nod.

"Why?" the guard asked and Cloud turned his eyes away, looking down.

"Sorry," he said. "You shouldn't have had to do that," he added.

"It's not a big deal," Dove said back to him and he nodded, still not looking at him. "You finished with all this crap," the man said after a moment and Cloud looked to where he was motioning, toward the stacked boxes.

Cloud let out a shaky breath as he stared at the boxes and thought back on everything he'd learned from their contents. "Yeah. I guess," he answered sadly and fell silent.

"It doesn't make you who you are," Dove said after a moment, drawing his attention back.

He released a short laugh before he replied, "It kind of does though, doesn't it?"

Dove smiled in return. He shrugged lightly. "I guess. Up until now. From now it's up to you, right?"

Cloud had a hard time disagreeing. He asked Dove earnestly if he trusted Galen and Genesis, seeing as the guard seemed to be a decent guy, and the man said that he did. It didn't mean much but somehow it made Cloud feel more at ease.

After he'd eaten, Dove asked if he wanted to take a walk. He was willing to take any opportunity given to him to look at something different than what he'd had to look at from underground. Dove took him upstairs down the same hall he'd seen before but he showed him a few of the rooms he hadn't seen yet. The chem lab, the auto shop, and the cafeteria. Those were the main areas being used. It was quiet throughout the building though. He realized why when he looked out one of the windows and saw the crew that Galen had mentioned. While he'd seen a few of them the day before, he could see now that Genesis was leading a group of what looked to be about thirty people. Outside, they were doing laps on a track. The scene brought him close to what he felt was a genuine memory. Something from years ago. Some he couldn't quite dredge the memory up from deep within his mind.

Upstairs was where it seemed the crew slept. There were cots spread across several old classrooms, and attached to the main portion of the building, was what looked to be section meant for primary level education. The classrooms seemed untouched, the desks and chairs still in place. Some of the blackboards even had chalk writing on them. Everything about this place filled him with a sense of familiarity and…peace. He couldn't explain it. Part of him wanted to take a piece of chalk and make his own markings on the boards but a bigger part of him wanted them left untouched, just as they were. An eternal time capsule to be discovered again far into the future. As he looked at the little desks in the room he thought of Marlene. Of all the people he'd been taken from, he hadn't thought he'd miss her, but she was the one person he seemed to think of first. It may have been because he was fearful for her. Fearful he'd do something to put her in jeopardy, but he knew it was also because he was actively trying to put Zack out of his mind. For a few reasons.

Thinking of Zack struck him with so many emotions, the overwhelming of which were anger and sadness. Zack had always had the incredible ability to make him feel safe and cared for. Zack was his best friend. They'd been to hell and back together and he couldn't imagine a world without him in it. But at the same time, Zack frustrated him. The fact Zack had kept so much from him made him feel like he'd been held captive in another way entirely. It was like Zack had tried to control him by withholding memories that belonged to both of them. The past that they'd shared. He knew Zack would probably be worried about him. Looking for him. He missed Zack terribly, but he'd been missing him for months and suddenly he was struck with a feeling he wasn't completely familiar with. There'd been moments before when he'd wanted to be alone, but it was different now. He felt he needed to be away from everyone he knew, all the people that he'd found himself questioning. His trust in them had been waning, his suspicions of their motives growing. It wasn't healthy. In this place he'd been met with what he'd been longing for. Truth. Cold and hard and unforgiving. And he felt needed there. He had a purpose. It made it easy for him not to fight against Galen and Genesis, at least for the time being.

000

"This guy doesn't exist," Kunsel said. It was the worst possible thing to come from Kunsel's mouth. Zack was past the point of frustration and anger. He'd entered a realm of exasperation the moment he'd gotten Aerith back from the lifestream and Kunsel's words had him sinking deeper than he'd thought possible. He barely answered his friend as he explained that the name Bison was essentially unheard of at Shinra. There wasn't, nor had there ever been, a registered Turk named Bison working for Shinra. That was the only lead they'd had left in their search for who had taken Cloud.

"Don't get discouraged," Kunsel said after a moment of silence between them. "Something will come up. Information. Someone knows something. It will come out in time," he assured Zack. Zack barely heard him. He hummed back a few short acknowledgements to his friend on the phone as he was talking until Kunsel finally said he had to go.

He'd tried not to get discouraged. It was difficult though when there'd been no news at all. It was as if Cloud had fallen from the face of the earth and it had Zack questioning if perhaps Hojo had somehow taken Cloud back. It would explain the fact that there seemed to be no information on his whereabouts from any avenue, inside or out of Shinra. He understood now how frustrating it must have been for Kunsel when his friend suspected he and Cloud hadn't died in the Nibelheim disaster. No matter how hard Kunsel had tried to find him, he'd come up with nothing. This was the power behind Shinra. Once Zack had come to the realization that in all likelihood Cloud was back in Hojo's clutches, it didn't take long for him to feel the despair he'd been familiar with in the mansion. For a few days he was able to hide it under his concern for Aerith over making sure she recovered from her lifestream experience. After that, he needed to get away, if only for a few hours. He needed to be away from the city that made him feel suffocated, and there was only one place he could think of to go.

It was bitterly cold standing on the cliffs where he'd not so long ago lay dying. The thin layer of snow on the ground masked the dirty earth that he still imagined to be stained red. He had spent a lot of time since then wondering if it would have been better if he hadn't survived that day. He felt that at some point he'd lost track of the difference between doing the right things, and doing the best things. He'd let his fears guide him instead of his head and his heart. This is where it had landed him. He focused his eyes on Midgar. The city always looked the same from far away. Harmless. Almost welcoming, as the only vestige of activity surrounded in desert dotted with the odd farmstead or house. He'd cared for that city, given his life to SOLDIER to defend its people, its walls. It hadn't meant anything.

He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, shutting his eyes a moment and listening to the whistle from the wind through rocks on the cliff edge. He begged for help silently. Pleading for an answer. A sign. A lead. Something.

His phone rang then, startling him a little. He opened his eyes and reached for it, thinking it would be Aerith, wondering about him. It was Kunsel. For a second he debated if he should answer it. He wasn't in the mood to talk to him and be told yet again not to worry, but with a sigh he gave in and sombrely greeted his friend.

"I was contacted by Reno," Kunsel announced. "He has some information that he wanted to share but he wouldn't tell me what it was on the phone. He wants to meet with you somewhere."

"Does he know where Cloud is?" Zack asked doubtfully.

"I don't think so. He said it was nothing to really get your hopes up over," Kunsel answered sadly. "What do you want me to tell him?"

Zack thought for a moment. "Uh...I guess tell him the bar. Tifa's. She'll probably want to know about whatever he has so it might as well be there. I'll call her to confirm she is up for it and let you know."

"Okay, talk to you soon," Kunsel said.

As Zack hung up he took in a deep breath, preparing himself to talk to Tifa. Before he could release his breath, his ears picked up the sounds of footsteps headed toward him. He froze in place and listened, his heart beginning to pound harder in response to the feeling in his gut that told him to be afraid.

"Zackary," a voice said from behind him. He recognized it instantly though he was at a loss for a moment as to who it was. He turned slightly to look over his shoulder. What he saw shocked and scared him at the same time. As he turned his back to the cliff edge he felt his body get hot, his heart pummeling the inside of his chest and his skin alive with goosebumps. With the sun behind him, the sudden visitor's face was slightly obscured but it didn't make it any harder to deny what Zack was seeing.

"No," Zack barely found his voice. As the man took a few steps toward him, he found himself backing up. "Angeal?" he squeaked out.

"Be careful," the man warned. Zack wasn't listening. His thoughts were racing, his pulse pounding in his head. He didn't even feel the edge of the ground below his feet. All he could see was the man coming toward him and all he felt was a hand taking hold of the front of his shirt. "Zack," the man said with some urgency before Zack felt himself being pulled forward. He realized as he stared down at the ground how close he'd been to just stepping off the edge of the cliff. He felt light-headed, his vision shaky.

"This is happening?" Zack spoke questioningly. His knees began to fail him then and he reached out his hands to grip the broad set of shoulders ahead of him. The hand holding his shirt let go and wrapped around his torso, keeping him from sinking to the ground. "Angeal," he repeated the man's name as his tears were flooding his eyes. He'd had dreams of this moment. He'd wished for it. For years he'd wished and hoped the truth he knew to be false. That Angeal hadn't really died all that time ago. That he'd been in hiding somewhere and would return one day. As much as he wanted to believe he'd been right, something was off. He pulled away from the man slowly, his legs hardly holding his weight as he approached the nearest rock he could set himself down on. "You have no idea how much I prayed for this," he spoke through his choked emotions. He couldn't make himself face the man ahead of him. "You're not him, are you?" he added painfully. He forced himself to look up at him. "Who are you?" he asked. With the sun now illuminating the man's face he was able to see him fully. "You look like him," Zack said while he wiped at the tears on his face.

Indeed, the man looked like Angeal, but there were differences. He looked like someone else too, he just couldn't put his finger on who it was.

"I know," the man agreed. He bent down to pick something off the ground that he then handed to Zack. It was his phone. He hadn't realized he'd dropped it. "And I'm sorry I couldn't give you the reunion you were hoping for. I know how much he meant to you. I know that now, more than ever. I never realized the things I would inherit when I took on his likeness." The man came to sit down on another rock nearby. "Echoes," he said then. "That's what the scientists called it. Remnants of memories trapped in the cells that became my own. Some days I feel more like him than myself."

It came to Zack then as he looked past the man's face into his eyes. "Lazard," he concluded and the man nodded. "How?" he asked then. "Hollander?"

"It was his research, but…I did it to myself," Lazard explained.

"Why?" Zack asked.

"At the time, I thought it would assist me in my cause. I was foolish," was all he said.

Zack shook his head then. "So it was you? All the times I thought I was seeing Angeal? It was you?" His tone was bordering on accusatory and angry. He'd always had that hope in his heart that somehow he'd been visited and watched over by his mentor but how could he believe that now?

"If it was in the last few months, then I expect so. I felt compelled to see you, to confirm you were well. It's what Angeal would want," he answered a little awkwardly.

"Why not just confront me then?"

"I felt it inappropriate. I knew it could hurt you," Lazard replied lowly.

"And now?"

"Now, there's no choice. I had something I needed to inform you of. It's about Cloud Strife," he revealed to Zack's shock.

"What about him?" he asked fast.

"Cloud's being held by a terrorist organization," Lazard revealed, his words striking a combination of elation and fear into Zack at the same time. It wasn't Hojo who had Cloud after all.

"You know where he is?" was Zack's next question.

Lazard shook his head. "Unfortunately, no."

"Then how do you—"

"Genesis…told me."

Zack looked back at him aghast, not sure if he'd heard right. "Genesis?" Zack said his name skeptically. "He's alive?" Zack thought back on the day he'd seen, he thought, with his own eyes Genesis's death.

"Barely," Lazard confirmed. "He's degrading. So am I. I was with him for some time. Until I refused to follow his orders, to contribute to his…plan."

"What plan?" Zack asked.

"To take down the Shinra Company. He's leading a terrorist group. They've been planning some large strikes on Midgar. They've planned the first one for some time in the next few days. I only know this because I spoke with Genesis this morning. That's when I found out about Cloud."

The explanation didn't do much to settle the questions Zack still had about his friend. "What does any of this have to do with Cloud?" he inquired.

"I'm not sure," Lazard said with a slight shrug. "I think they want to use him. He's a powerful weapon, Zack," he spoke seriously, almost said like a warning.

Zack observed him with a raised brow. "What would they know about it?" he muttered.

Lazard sighed a little before answering. "Genesis leads the group but he doesn't run it. The one who does worked at the mansion under Hojo. He was one of his assistants. A long-time assistant. He was there when you and Cloud were brought to the lab. He was still there when you escaped. After your escape, Hojo dismissed his staff. He blackmarked them, making it impossible for them to get jobs within Shinra. Before leaving, this man took copies of all of Hojo's files from the project you were subjects of. Photos, surveillance, everything. He probably knows more about you than you do."

The only response Zack could think to give was to groan outwardly while he leaned forward, his upper body resting on his elbows propped on his knees. "You have no idea where Genesis has him?" he asked a minute later when a wave of anxiety had passed.

"No," Lazard denied. "Genesis doesn't trust me not to sabotage him."

"Why don't you want to help him? Surely, you don't support Shinra. You did betray the company after all," Zack pointed out.

"True," Lazard agreed. "But I have no desire to wage a global war, which is what Genesis will initiate when his group of anarchists begins blowing up buildings and killing civilians."

Zack had a hard time imagining it, that they'd have the man- and fire power to do it. Or that they'd be crazy enough. "You think they'd do that?"

"Do you remember Genesis?" Lazard fired back at him. Zack rolled his eyes. Of course a war was something Genesis was capable of. He couldn't see how he'd manage to get Cloud to participate though.

"What do we do?" Zack asked but Lazard only shook his head. Zack let out another long exhale, trying to let everything he'd just learned sink in. He remembered then what he'd been about to do just as Lazard interrupted him. "I need to call someone. Reno of the—" he stopped and looked at Lazard. "You know," he said while waving his hand and Lazard nodded. Of course he'd still remember the Turk. "He has some information related to Cloud. I don't know what it is. Maybe nothing, maybe the same thing you just told me." He dialed Tifa's number and she picked up after the third ring. She was surprisingly civil with him after he told her Reno would be bringing some info on Cloud. He hadn't seen her since Cloud had been taken but he knew Aerith had been talking to her, keeping her updated. She agreed the meeting could be held at the bar.

Zack decided it best that he bring not only Lazard, now that he'd made his surprise appearance, but Aerith and Johnny as well, as they'd all been involved in the search for Cloud in one way or another. It would be easiest if they were all on the same page. They waited together with Tifa for Kunsel and Reno to arrive. Aerith hadn't seemed surprised to see Lazard and she'd been as courteous as Zack expected her to be. Johnny hadn't known the man, even before he took on Angeal's likeness so he had nothing much to say to him. Tifa was a different story. She had mountains of questions for him that only ended when Reno walked through the door of the bar, flanked by Kunsel, and stopped dead a foot inside.

"What the fuck?" he exclaimed in shock as his eyes immediately landed on Lazard.

"Reno," the former Shinra director spoke to him, coming to a stand from where he'd been seated at a table. Reno took a step back, nearly pushing Kunsel back out the door of the bar.

"What's the—" Kunsel started to ask in annoyance when he saw what Reno was looking at and pushed his way past him. "Oh my god," he uttered then, his eyes wide. "Angeal?" Zack approached him and Reno. "Zack, is—" Kunsel began to say to him but he stopped him.

"It's not. It's Lazard," he stated.

"Lazard?" Reno repeated.

"He can explain after," Zack said sharply. "Is Rude with you?" he asked and Reno shook his head, his eyes still on Lazard.

"Naw, he's working…" he said a little distantly before finally looking at Zack. "He still has a fucking job, remember?" he spoke bitterly.

Zack released an impatient exhale. "So what is it you have? You know where Cloud is?"

"No," Reno said and Lazard spoke up.

"He's with Genesis," he said.

"What?" Kunsel exclaimed. "Impossible."

Zack looked at him. "We never did confirm his death," he pointed out.

"Yeah but…" Kunsel started but trailed off, knowing Zack was right.

"He's fronting a terrorist group," Zack repeated what he'd been told by Lazard.

"What group?" Tifa questioned from behind the bar counter. "AVALANCHE would have heard something about this."

"Obviously not," Zack fired back at her.

"Would one of those terrorists be a guy named Galen?" Reno spoke up, looking from Zack to Lazard.

"Yes," Lazard confirmed, nodding.

"How did you know?" Zack asked Reno.

Reno shook his head a little in disbelief before answering. "Galen was Tseng's informant from the Shinra Mansion, the one who gave us those photos he showed you that one day in your apartment. Rude and I followed the 'Bison' lead and came up with information it was an alias being used by one of the Turks. We believe he was being used as a mole, probably by Galen. We think it was Galen who called in to headquarters to report your location in the slums. Must have been a set-up. They knew Shinra would come after you, how, and when, so they were ready to intercept."

"But you guys don't have any information on where this organization is operating from?" Tifa inquired with a hint of suspicion.

"No," Kunsel denied. Reno smiled from next to him.

"What?" Zack asked.

"We might soon," he said strangely. With questioning eyes looking his way he revealed "During our investigation, Rude and I discovered some evidence of this Turk, Bison's, insubordination. Rude reported it. I'd say it's only a matter of time before the information on where Galen is comes spilling out."

"Are you an idiot!" Tifa shouted at him from across the bar before Zack had the chance to. "Shinra wants Cloud, if they find out where he's being kept before we do then we'll be screwed!"

"Genesis won't let that happen," Lazard spoke up before anyone else could. "Cloud means too much to him right now and he knows how to stay ahead of the company.

"Well, still," Tifa protested. "It was a stupid thing to do."

"Look!" Reno shouted back at her then. "I got other people to worry about who mean more to me than Strife, okay. The arrest of this scum bag, Bison, or whoever the hell he is, could mean maybe Tseng will be released from wherever the hell it is the company has him locked away. And maybe then we can both have our jobs back. And trust me! We'll know better than to stick our necks out for any of you in the future," he yelled angrily before turning and pushing through the bar door back outside. Kunsel was about to go after him but Zack stopped him.

"I wanna talk to him," he said.

"With your words, not your fists, Zack!" Kunsel called after him as he was heading out the bar door.

"Reno!" Zack called after the Turk. He'd made it a good distance down the road so Zack broke into a jog to catch up with him. Reno looked back at him briefly.

"Got a train to catch, Fair," Zack heard him call back over his shoulder.

"A train?" Zack said when he'd caught up to him.

"Yeah you know, because I don't have a car anymore, since you smashed it to shit," the Turk snapped at him without looking at him. He took a puff from the cigarette in his hand.

"I'm sorry, alright," Zack said and Reno laughed dryly. "I know that you and Rude, and Tseng tried to help. I get it alright. Even after we told you we wouldn't be part of your plan to install Rufus as president." Reno was still walking hurriedly, seemingly ignoring him. "I'm sorry," he repeated as he tried to stop him with a hand on his one arm. Reno did come to a fast stop then, and jerked his arm away.

"You pointed a gun in my face, Fair," the Turk said in a calmer tone than Zack had been expecting. Zack nodded a little. "You broke into my apartment and pointed a gun at me, after we helped you."

"Yes, I did," Zack admitted. He looked away from Reno for a moment as memories were beginning to flood him. "But you guys, you—"

"We know what we did, Fair," Reno interjected. "And we know what we are because of it. And that was then. You don't get to do the things you do now, and pretend it isn't what it is. You're gonna do what you have to, and so am I."

Zack tore his eyes from Reno's when he heard a car pulling up close to them. He saw that it was Kunsel. "You get me?" Reno said then, drawing his attention back.

"Yeah," Zack agreed with a short nod. Kunsel was calling for Reno to get in the car then so he could take him back up to the plate.

"Alright, Zack?" Kunsel said to him from the car and he nodded in affirmation while Reno was heading around to the passenger's side of the car. "I'll call you," his friend said before turning towards Reno. "You can't smoke in here," he said and Reno audibly huffed in annoyance before taking one last drag of his cigarette and tossing the rest to the side of the road. Zack stood outside for a few minutes after they'd driven off, contemplating Reno's words before reuniting with the others at Tifa's bar to discuss their next move in locating Cloud.