"Are you sure about this?" Elena asked looking through the night vision binoculars they had gotten from the cache Reeve had sent them along with their weapons. His blade had been returned to him by Takashi before they released him along with their car and gave them directions to this dock being run by the Silver Lotus gang. Apparently this dock was part of a wide ring of rackets the gang controlled extorting for money and smuggling rights.

"You mean about our secret organization of Wutai spies?" Kayaku asked lighting a cigarette as Elena took watch. If you're staking out a place it's important to have someone switch watching with. Over time your eyes get tired looking through the binoculars and boredom sets in and you can miss something potentially important. They'd tossed a coin and Elena called heads losing and having to take first watch.

"Yeah." She asked. "If they wanted to work with us and the rest of the WRO they could have made things simpler."

"Reeve said they checked out." He said. "Apparently he gave Godo permission to run intelligence operations outside of the WRO." He said. "Though I don't know if the rest of the council would be very happy learning about this."

"I was starting to believe you were Reeve's biggest secret." Elena said to him with a smirk. "I'm kind of relieved he has more skeletons in his closet to be honest. It means he's doing his job right."

"A man in his position can't have completely clean hands." Kayaku said.

"Exactly." Elena said. "His job as president covers him in red tape. A competent leader has to cut some of that away if they plan to accomplish anything."

"So then why doubt Wutai Intelligence?" he asked.

"First is the rude introduction." She explained glancing behind him out the window. "The other is the third wheel." She said with a sigh as Nobu opened the door and slid into the back seat.

"Hungry?" he asked passing them some coffee and some hot bento boxes. "Stake outs tend to work up an appetite." He said grabbing his chopsticks.

"Thanks Nobu." Kayaku said opening the bento and breathing in the hot contents.

"Hey uh can you put that out?" Nobu asked pointing to his cigarette.

Kayaku sighed and snubbed out his cigarette in the cars ashtray.

"So what's been happening?" Nobu asked Elena.

"Nothing so far." She reported. "Just a bunch of dockworkers going about their business."

"It's the end of the month." Nobu explained. "Someone will be coming to collect fees from the office and check up on their smuggling operation."

"Did you get the camera and the night vision lenses?" Kayaku asked grabbing a bunch of pickled vegetables and eating them.

"Damnit." Nobu said setting his bento down on the seat. "I'll be back."

Nobu closed the car door and left Kayaku and Elena alone. "I thought we already had the camera?" Elena asked. "And the night vision lenses?"

"We do." Kayaku said. "I just wanted to lose our anti-smoking third wheel." He said digging into his bento.

"He won't be too happy about that." Elena said. "His bento's getting cold."

"I'll pretend it was an accident." Kayaku said eating his bento. "He should be looking for it quite a while."

"Too bad we're working." Elena said.

Kayaku took note of her comment but didn't say anything. He quietly ate his bento and drank the coffee while it was still hot. "You should sleep." Elena said keeping her eyes trained on the dock.

"You sure?" Kayaku said smoking his cigarette listening to the slight patter of rain starting to hit the roof of their car. "It's good to have company."

Elena smirked. "You have next watch." She said. "And you shouldn't be tired. But I appreciate the thought."

"Alright." Kayaku said sliding his charcoal grey fedora over his eyes. He leaned back and lowered the seat. "Wake me when you need me."

"I will." Elena said.

….

Barret woke to the sound of gunfire. In the pitch black of his cell he listened to the echoes of fighting reverberating in the halls outside. The air was starting to spell of burnt gunpowder. The blaring alarm was

"Looks like our rescue is here." Barret said hearing the sounds of fighting outside his door.

A thundering boom deafened them as the door blew open. Over a week spent in darkness had done its damage. Barret shielded his eyes to the blinding light.

"Barret." He heard Cloud greet. "Come one we're blowing this joint."

He squinted letting his eyes slowly adjust and stared at the dark silhouettes of Cloud and Vincent. "Fuck yeah." He said standing up and walking out keeping his eyes barely open.

"What took you guys so long?" Cissnei asked following close behind.

"We thought you had it handled." Vincent said leading them as Cloud took point with his sword running through the corridors slashing through everything in his path. "How'd you get captured anyways?" Cloud asked.

"Cave in." Barret said his eyes slowly starting to adjust to the low light of the underground tunnels.

"What?" Cloud asked.

"I sort of shot down a chopper and caused a cave in on top of us." He explained matching Vincent's pace as he followed the trail of dead bodies back to where he came from. "In hindsight I should have thought that out better."

"You saved our lives." Cissnei said. "We'd be dead otherwise."

A hail of gunfire greeted them from the corner. Cloud blasted the soldiers with ice freezing them as he charged and busted them apart into tiny icy shards. The enemies answered with more gunfire strafing the hallway and forcing Cloud to retreat.

Vincent hugged the corner and fired his submachine gun trying unsuccessfully to suppress the assaulting men. "This way." Cloud directed them checking another corner.

Vincent grabbed a smoke grenade and pulled the pin tossing it around the corner. With a loud pop it released its white smoke that filled the hallway in moments hiding their retreat.

Vincent followed Cloud. "Here." He said handing Cissnei the submachine gun. "You need a weapon." He said reaching into his crimson cloak and grabbing the spare magazines for her. She sling the weapons sling over her shoulder and tucked the magazines into the waistband of her pants.

"Thanks." She said checking the weapon. Vincent drew Cerberus and covered the rear.

"Suppose you didn't grab a spare arm for me." Barret said clutching his stump of an arm.

"Sorry." Cloud said. "It didn't cross our minds. Cid might have one of your old ones on the Shera."

"Fucking great." He said. "You come here thinking I was captured and it doesn't cross your minds that I was literally fucking disarmed."

They moved through the halls and corridors keeping themselves on guard as they navigated the tunnels. "This way!" Cloud said leading them through a door.

They all stepped into catwalk and looked out over a massive cavern. Lights hung from the ice ceiling above and illuminated the massive underground fissure. They looked down at the floor. A chill shot up their spines. Scaled and massive it slept below as the soldiers of Deepground built around it. Atop a massive turtle like shell the soldiers formed weapons and structures arming the monster from head to toe.

"No." Cloud whispered not wanting to believe what he was seeing. The monster before them awakened their memories and rekindled their fear. Its name was on all their lips. "WEAPON."