The electronic screech triggered a jolt of adrenaline so intense it felt like an electrical shock from a live wire. Sephiroth started awake, inhaling sharply and flailing amid the bedclothes before he realized the noise was from his PHS and that he was not actually under attack. Breathing heavily, he fumbled for the phone as it vibrated across the night stand, ringtone blaring loud enough in the empty ward to wake the dead. Finally grabbing the blasted thing, he squinted at the too-bright screen, eyes going wide as he recognized the number. Hastily, he flipped the phone open.
"Lazard?" he asked, half afraid someone else would answer.
"Sephiroth?" his old commander's voice asked and Sephiroth sagged against the headboard in relief.
"It's me, Sir," Sephiroth replied, painfully glad to hear the SOLDIER Director's voice. "Are you alright?"
"Fine," Lazard told him. "A lot's happened since you left, but I'm okay. We're all okay."
Even if that only meant that no one was seriously injured and they were all in prison somewhere, Sephiroth was alright with that. So long as everyone was safe and in one piece, the rest was just details.
"Good," Sephiroth responded, his heartbeat beginning to slow to a normal rate again. In the next cot, Genesis had propped himself up on one elbow and was blinking sleepily in the darkness.
"Who is it?" he mumbled.
"Where are you?" Sephiroth asked, ignoring Genesis for the moment. "What's going on?"
"I got your messages. Why do you want to know about my prosthetic?"
"What's the power source? Is it a single, whole materia, or just a shard in a customized fitting?"
"A shard…" Lazard replied, sounding lost. "Why?"
"Short version: we have half a summon materia and we need the other two pieces before it will work. You have one. May I have it? I'll replace it."
"Sure," Lazard agreed, deciding to ask for details later. "Anything I can do to help."
"Now what about you?"
"I'm not at Shinra anymore. I was given a choice of either being reassigned to Deepground, or taking early retirement. I chose the latter."
It took Sephiroth a moment before he found his voice again. "Deepground?"
"Fin's staffed the whole Shinra building with them. Everything that used to be guarded by SOLDIERs is now protected by Deepground troops. No one's happy about it except maybe the troops themselves. Something tells me they don't get out much."
"Who's still there?"
"The board. Scarlet, Palmer, Heidigger, Reeve, and Hojo. Heidigger pitched a holy fit, but got the same ultimatum that I did. To my knowledge, no one else has said anything, but that doesn't mean they like it. Rumor is that they might all be replaced if they don't resign first. Personally, I think the only reason most of them are hanging around is because of you."
They wanted to provide him with eyes and ears on the inside. It would be invaluable information to have, if only the board members could get the information to him. Unless of course, he brought the battle to Shinra… However, he couldn't do anything until Elfe was back on her feet, which brought him back around to the beginning.
"I suppose it's a bit late to ask if the line is secure," Sephiroth mused. "Where are you?"
"Secure enough. I haven't been out of the game so long that I can't spot and disable a wire tap."
That made Sephiroth smile.
"We're at home," Lazard went on. "So long as I keep my mouth shut, they shouldn't have any reason to try to shut it for me."
"I need a way into Midgar. Is anything not on lockdown?"
Lazard snorted. "No, every entry point is sealed tight. You're the most wanted man in the city besides that demon in red they were looking for a couple of months ago."
"The demon's gone," Sephiroth said quietly. "I killed him myself."
"Well, that's one down," Lazard said philosophically. "I'll see what I can do, but unless you can fly, there's no way in."
Sephiroth cast a resentful glance at his half-furled wing. Why had he only gotten one? What good was just one wing?
"I'll figure something out," Sephiroth vowed. "In the meantime, stay safe. Don't do anything foolish."
"You too, kid."
The ward suddenly seemed extra-dark now that the green light of the PHS screen had gone out.
"So what are you going to do?" Genesis asked into the darkness. "Walk to Midgar?"
Sephiroth shrugged. "If I have to."
"Shrina will have an entire legion of Deepground mutants waiting for you at every gate."
"This is my responsibility," Sephiroth insisted. "I'll take care of it."
"You like her…" Genesis pronounced this as if he'd solved one of the deep mysteries of the cosmos.
"No, I don't," Sephiroth replied automatically.
"You do too," Genesis insisted, "or you wouldn't be going to all this trouble."
"She and Zirconiade are the best shot we have at beating Jenova."
"Oh please," Genesis said, golden eyes rolling. "You could not be acting the Heroic Paladin more if you were on stage in gilded plate mail."
"You're delirious," Sephiroth told him straight-faced. "I'm going to tell Shalua to adjust your medication."
Genesis ignored him. "Crossing oceans to fetch the magic talisman that will save the life of the Maiden Fair? You wouldn't do that for just anyone."
"Elfe would probably stab you if you said that to her face."
"You're using her first name," Genesis went on. "Why not 'Verdot'? And don't tell me it's to tell her apart from her old man."
Although Sephiroth was glad Genesis was alive to annoy him, his patience was wearing thin. "Because she asked me to call her that," he said somewhat testily. "I'm just doing what I need to in order to solve all this. This isn't a battle I can fight myself, so I've got to make sure the one person who can stays alive."
The younger man fell silent at that. Sephiroth set the phone back on the bedside table and resettled on the mattress. He had only managed to fall asleep earlier due to sheer exhaustion. Knowing Lazard was safe and that at least one of the Zircon shards was accounted for did much to ease his mind. Off to his left, Genesis shifted as well, the springs of the old metal cot creaking softly.
"You realize if she does kill Jenova, she'll have to kill us too. We were both born carrying Jenova's DNA. As long as we live, so does Jenova."
Sephiroth opened his mouth to reply, but no words came out. Turning on his side, he looked over, locking eyes with his friend.
"I've been dying for months now," Genesis said quietly. "I've had time to think about this. I'm only twenty-four. I'm not ready to die, but I'm going to whether I like or not. I don't mind so much if my death means other people will be safe, but I don't want to lie here and waste away. I want to help. I want to do something. When I die, I want to do so with my sword in my hand."
Sephiroth wanted desperately to argue with him, to promise Genesis he wasn't going to die, but he couldn't refute the truth. Genesis was right. Defeating Jenova more than likely meant that both of them would have to die as well. Anyone carrying the alien parasite's DNA was a risk to themselves and everyone around them.
"Is it worth it to wait until after the fighting's over?" Genesis wanted to know. "Why is it always after the war that people want to do things? Why do they put it off? Don't they know that tomorrow things could change? That one or both of them could be dead by then?"
"Gen…" Reaching across the gap between their beds, Sephiroth grasped Genesis' good hand. The younger man did not smile, but squeezed his hand a little.
"Seph, if you have anything at all to say to her, say it now. Don't wait. Tell her how you feel while you still can."
"I don't know how I feel," he confessed.
"Then tell her that. Maybe she can help you figure it out."
It was like the Shinra board meetings, but on a much smaller scale. The Corel City Hall's council room was perhaps half the size of the Shinra board room. Sephiroth did not miss the enormous table or the plush armchairs arranged neatly around it. For one, he was certain he never could have managed a chair like that with the wing on his shoulder getting in the way at every twist and turn. Instead, the little wooden chairs clustered around one end of the polished table were like grown-up versions of the kind of seating commonly found behind school desks: inconvenient for anything but sitting bolt upright. Between his new wing and still stiff neck, this suited Sephiroth just fine.
Genesis, by contrast, looked as if he would not have minded a nice soft chair to sink into. Despite a fresh blood transfusion- they had weighed the risks and decided it was more important that the younger man not decline any further- he looked only marginally better than the woman on the laptop screen. Elfe was not one to fuss over her appearance; she wore her hair boy short and didn't bother with makeup. However, it was evident someone had made an attempt to mask the circles under her eyes and the pallor of her complexion. The face powder was half a shade too dark and contrasted strangely with the fair skin of her throat. There was no concealing the tightness around her eyes, or the effort it was requiring just for her to hold her head up. She was tired and in pain, but she wasn't going to admit it.
Elena was still fiddling with the video connection, and it took her a moment before she managed to eliminate the wavy, horizontal bars of static cutting through the picture. Veld peered curiously at the camera, nudging it a bit from his end and making the picture jump.
"Don't touch it!" Elena snapped, and the old Turk sat down again. Elfe, swathed in her white cloak- the sleeve of her hospital smock carefully concealed- tried to push herself up a bit straighter with her good arm.
"Can you see us?" she asked.
"We can see and hear you just fine," President Rufus assured her. "How are you feeling, Commander?"
"Fine, Sir," she said automatically. Veld gave her a dubious look, but said nothing. "General," she went on, looking at Sephiroth, "did you uncover anything helpful?"
He had discovered plenty, but whether or not it was helpful, he had no idea. "I do have some good news. Director Lazard does indeed have a fragment of the Zircon materia and is happy to give it to you. I also have a lead as to where the fourth piece might be. However, Lazard has been removed from his position as Director of SOLDIER. He informed me that SOLDIER has been disbanded and that the Shinra building and other facilities are now being patrolled by Deepground troops."
The following silence was thunderous. Sephiroth gave them a few minutes to absorb what he'd just said.
"Deepground…" Veld echoed. What he said next was too low to make out, but Elfe's raised eyebrows said enough.
"That figures," Azul grumbled. The big man had wedged himself into the room and was seated on the floor behind everyone else. He was still more than tall enough to see over everyone's heads. "Deepground's all Shinra's got left. Also, we're all controlled by microchips. Ain't nobody gonna step outta line."
Sephiroth nodded carefully. "President Shinra prefers troops he can control. He won't bother with traditional SOLDIERs anymore. If SOLDIER has been disbanded, that means he sees us as unpredictable and a liability. He'd rather eliminate us than try to negotiate."
"He's gonna send the kids after you sooner rather than later," Azul agreed. "You gotta stop him before he does."
"We need Commander Verdot in one piece before we do anything else."
"Not disagreein'," Azul told him. "Just playin' the long game."
"Understood." Azul was right. Shinra would have had to staff the building with someone, and who better than troops who would be loyal whether they liked it or not? Sephiroth rather fervently hoped Lazard and the rest of the board were alright. He didn't want to be indirectly responsible for yet more suffering.
"Thoughts, Sir?" Zack asked, watching the wheels turn in his commander's head.
"We need to go back," Sephiroth decided. "Not all of us, not right now, just a strike force to retrieve the materia shard and to find out personally what's going on.
"Genesis and I are the only ones in ranks who still carry any Jenova," Sephiroth continued, reasoning aloud. "I'm the greater threat."
"Hey, give me some credit," Genesis whined and Sephiroth forced back a smile with some effort.
"Neither one of us is fit for command, which is why Fair is running things."
"Nominally," Zack put in.
Sephiroth ignored him. "I don't need to be here."
Everyone looked at him.
"I don't," Sephiroth insisted. "I'm more of a liability than an asset at this point. I'll take a small team into Midgar to retrieve the Zircon shard."
"Sir," Tseng began somewhat awkwardly, "you have the most recognizable face on the planet. Everyone in Midgar is looking for you, particularly those in league with Shinra."
"Don't you think I can do it?" Sephiroth kept his voice polite, but the words still came out a challenge. Tseng offered a brief bow in apology.
"I only meant, Sir, that you will be taking an enormous risk."
"Who else could do it?" The question was largely rhetorical and they all knew it. "I need Fair and the other CO's to stay here and make sure Corel is protected and that nothing else happens. Colonel Rhapsodos is injured, and Commander Verdot is the reason I'm staging this mission."
No one else looked eager to argue, so he went on.
"Azul, you mentioned microchips. What can you tell me about them?"
The big man shrugged. "They're implanted at the base of your skull as soon as you're press-ganged. If you try to raise a hand against a Restrictor, it releases an electrical pulse and shocks you till you can't move. If you cross the boundaries without clearance, the chip'll explode like a firecracker, killing you instantly. The Restrictors run everything down there; only they can turn 'em on and off. I dunno how you'd shut the damn things off, but you'd have to get past all four of those flesh robots before you could do anything."
"So the computer terminal that regulates the microchips is in Deepground itself?"
Azul nodded. "That'd be my guess. I ain't much on technology."
A reconnaissance mission to fetch pieces of materia was one thing, infiltrating the warren that was Deepground was quite another. Unfortunately, Azul and his family would have to wait. Adding it to his mental 'to do' list, he looked up as Elfe spoke:
"Do you have a team in mind?"
"Yes." Twisting awkwardly in his seat, Sephiroth addressed the director of the Turks. "Tseng, I'd like to borrow a couple of your people, if I may? This is a job that requires stealth, not brute force. Turks are less likely to stand out than SOLDIERs."
"We have a cell in Midgar," Elfe added, not batting an eyelash. "There's a bar in Sector Seven that serves as their base of operations. I'll send word to them. They'll help you."
"Thank you," Sephiroth told her, taking the news of a sleeper cell inside Midgar in stride. The presence of Avalanche vigilantes in the city would certainly explain a few things.
"The Turks are at your service, of course," Tseng agreed, "but how are you going to get there? Shinra's likely to have every entrance point blocked."
Turning, Sephiroth looked back at Azul. "How did you get here?"
The big man grinned. "We walked."
"I dunno what's creepier," Reno remarked. "The fact that all this is down here, or that we never knew about it."
"Both," Sephiroth replied, eyeing the sea-green walls with some distrust. The rock of the cavern was coated in at least an inch of materia like a brittle shell of hard candy.
"Dunno that this even existed that long ago," Azul observed. "Started using these a couple of years back. Shinra's been reroutin' the mako reactors for the last five years or so. Ain't none of the reactors drawin' makou from the same source they did fifty years ago."
"This is an aquifer," Sephiroth said, the lightbulb clicking on. "An aquifer for makou, but it's been sucked dry."
The big man nodded. "Avalanche ain't wrong. Reactors are suckin' this planet dry, and they won't be able to for too much longer. There's a finite supply of this stuff. Once it's gone, it's gone."
It might take a while, but down in this empty artery of the earth, Sephiroth could see the argument through Elfe's eyes all too clearly. As people, animals, and plant life perished, the spirit would be sucked up by the reactors until life on Gaia did indeed cease to exist. With any luck, they'd be able to resolve the whole mess- Jenova, makou reactors, Deepground, everything- before too much more time had passed. If they didn't, well, it wouldn't matter much in a few years, would it?
Glancing back over his shoulder, Sephiroth checked his pace yet again. The only person taller than him in the group was Azul, and he'd been following at the larger man's elbow the entire time. Sephiroth's natural stride was half again as long as that of most men, and urgency was driving him to walk faster and faster. However, that meant they were leaving the Turks in the dust. Reno and Rude were trotting to keep up, but Elena had been at a steady jog just to keep pace. At present, she was trailing her fellow Turks at some distance. Raising a hand to call a halt, Sephiroth stood by Azul and waited for the others to catch up.
Although Rude was only shorter than Sephiroth by a handwidth, he was panting a bit from having been at a near-run for over an hour.
"Geeze, boss," Reno huffed, leaning both his hands on his knees. "Take it easy. The rest of us ain't souped-up on makou."
He was used to traveling with SOLDIERs who were more than capable of keeping up with him. Accompanying the militia from the Corel Prison had been a very different operation with a much less serious time constraint. Deepground would not wait much longer before sending another one of Azul's children along with a couple thousand troops in the direction of Corel. He fervently hoped they would not run into each other down here. Azul had said it had taken his own troops a little over forty-eight hours jogging with only a few breaks in between. However, they were traveling with three standard-issue humans who could not hope to keep up that sort of pace. Even at the rate they were all going now, it would take over four days, perhaps more, just to reach the shore of the Eastern Continent.
"Let's take a break," Sephiroth announced. The Turks dropped to sit on the ground almost in perfect unison. All three of them were tired and hungry. It wasn't fair to expect them to keep up with two unusually tall SOLDIERs.
"How far would you say we've come?" he asked Azul.
The giant's brow furrowed in thought.
"Well, we spent a good couple hours in the coal mines. Didn't really count that as part of the trip. Still, we've made decent time. Maybe a third of the way, give or take? Don't see no markers yet."
A third of the way was more than Sephiroth had hoped for. It still left an absurdly long distance to cover in very little time, but it could be done. Once in Midgar, they might be able to take a brief rest, or he could leave the Turks to rest on their own while he visited Lazard.
While the Turks and Azul broke into the rations, Sephiroth paced, trying to calculate, to devise a way in which to speed things up. He'd been horribly spoiled by having so many SOLDIERs at his beck and call. Being forced to be patient and to plan for comparatively weaker subordinates was a challenge he hadn't had to meet for a long time.
"Think you can go a little further?" he asked once they had finished eating. Reno and Rude exchanged a look and a shrug.
"Yeah, we're okay," Reno replied, apparently speaking for the group. Elena, however, looked less than thrilled with the idea. Reluctantly, she got to her feet, legs trembling from exhaustion. On the verge of changing his mind and telling them all to get some sleep, Sephiroth shut his mouth as Azul stooped and scooped up Elena in his arms.
"You ride with me, Little Sister," he told her, tucking her into the crook of one elbow. "Ain't fair to make a lady stretch her legs so far."
Elena seemed to be on the point of arguing that she could keep up, but then thought better of it. Smiling to himself, Sephiroth motioned for Azul to lead on. Hopefully they could make a few more miles without wearing themselves out too badly.
"Scarlett!" Reeve stumbled to her side as fast as his mismatched feet would let him. She lifted her head as he put his arms around her and he breathed a sigh of relief as he realized she wasn't hurt. "Darling, what's wrong?"
Even a former Turk rarely drank more than half a bottle at a time. Scarlett's crystal decanter, however, was nearly empty. Whatever it was, it had to be bad. Sniffing, Scarlett pulled a tissue from the box and tried to wipe the mascara streaks from her face.
"They're just kids, Reeve. Babies. They were my responsibility and I never even knew it."
Reeve, thoroughly lost, petted her back as she hid her face in his shoulder. Scarlett never cried, she had a Turk's iron resolve and stony reserve, but she had a tender heart beneath the armor. If something had upset her enough to reach for the whiskey and break down in tears, it couldn't be good.
"What are you talking about?" he asked, bewildered. Scarlett took a moment to collect herself, her professional mask sliding into place despite the salt on her cheeks.
"Look," she said, keying a command into her computer. An old-style green screen database flickered into view. It took Reeve a moment to recognize it as a list of statistics, except he did not know any of the names.
"What is all this?"
"SOLDIER statistics," Scarlet replied, voice hollow. "Deepground wasn't disbanded, it was buried. They hid these kids in the Weapons' database and I never caught it. I never even thought to look. You'd think I'd have noticed the update log."
"Nobody ever reads those," Reeve assured her, making a mental note to start looking over his own logs from now on.
"I was a Turk for fifteen years, I should have looked. It was my gods-damned job to look! If I had, I might have noticed that digital archives of stuff from twenty years ago are still being updated almost daily!"
Knowing nothing he could say would help, Reeve rubbed her shoulders and tried to be comforting. He blinked as the screen refreshed, the numbers jumping and reappearing in a different order. The name that had been at the top of the screen was now halfway down, the words "disciplinary action" listed next to it. That couldn't be good.
"What can we do?" he asked.
Scarlett did not answer right away, but watched the screen as the numbers scrolled down like drops of rain on a window. This was not the first time Shinra had tried to raise children to be more than adults, more than men with swords in their hands. She thought of Sephiroth, Angeal- Gods rest his soul-, Genesis, and the three little boys still living in captivity on the 67th floor.
The handful of remaining army personnel had been integrated with fresh troops that had been imported from seemingly nowhere. Deepground had been a defunct care unit when she was a Turk. Over the years, it had morphed into an urban legend. She had never imagined that any part of the rumors might be true. If Fin was going to replace SOLDIER with Deepground, then it was only a matter of time before the last three subjects of the Jenova Project were admitted to their ranks.
That, Scarlett vowed, was not going to happen.
Hojo might run the Science Department, but with a large portion of his research shuttered overnight, his ability to protect his precious specimens would be limited. Unless, of course, there was nothing there to protect. Reaching, Scarlett lifted the receiver of her desk phone and dialed.
"Hello!" Palmer's cheerful greeting crackled down the line.
"Hey, Palmer, it's Scarlett. I was wondering if you could come up and help me out with some computer issues? My console's acting up."
"Fie upon cheap office equipment," he agreed. "Tech support was no help?"
"Nah, this is beyond them."
"Say no more, I'll be right up!"
Reeve looked at her curiously as she hung up.
"Was that...code?" he asked. Scarlett leaned back in her chair and smiled.
"Yep. I could take this piece of crap apart and put it back together myself. I have, actually. I don't need him to trouble shoot, I need a co-conspirator to hack into the science department's database."
"What for?"
"Reeve, dear, have you ever thought about having kids?"
As Lazard had said, every point of entry was blocked. Except no one, it seemed, had thought of the sewers and subway tunnels at points of entry. Because of his microchip, Azul had elected to stand sentry and wait for them beneath the edge of the city walls. That left Sephiroth and the three Turks to sneak into the city. The first order of business was to find the Avalanche cell in Sector Seven. Elfe had promised to send word briefing them on the situation.
"You sure we can trust Avalanche?" Reno asked. "What makes you think they'll trust us?"
"I trust Elfe," Sephiroth replied. "She has no reason to double-cross us. Not now." Not when her life hung in the balance. It was a mercenary reason, and the most obvious, but not the only one. Elfe believed in honor and the sacredness of giving one's word. Avalanche might well be wary of the Great Sephiroth and a couple of Turks, but Sephiroth was prepared to trust them.
A curfew seemed to be in place throughout the slums. This was just as well. Although no one in Sephiroth's recon team was in uniform, their presence on a street that was supposed to be empty would no doubt draw all sorts of unwanted attention. Even with his hair tied back and hidden under the hood of Angeal's old Keepers of Honor sweatshirt, Masamune strapped to his back was a dead giveaway, as was the long leather jacket concealing his wing.
The streets were being loosely guarded not by troops, but by the half-sentient, four-legged soldiers. It wasn't easy to avoid them, and twice they had to either kill the beasts or make a run for it. There was a risk that those in charge of Deepground would notice when the creatures suddenly keeled over and died.
"The hell do we get past these things?" Reno asked after slaughtering the fifth mongrel in a row. "Someone's gonna notice us."
Sephiroth eyed the rickety houses and the piles of garbage heaped on either side of the street, the two so alike that it was sometimes hard to tell one from the other. The thought of his last visit to the slums rose to the surface; his duel with Vincent and his unconventional route back to Veld's apartment.
"If we can't go through the slums, then we'll go over."
Climbing over rooftops had seemed easier when he'd been following Vincent. It was more difficult than it looked to extrapolate a safe path across structures that were only marginally sound. It was just as well Azul had had to stay behind, he could never have followed their precipitous trail across ridgepoles and rainspouts. However, their efforts proved pointless.
"Aw, man!" Reon whined, looking at the smoldering pile of charcoal and corrugated iron that had once been a bar. Even Rude's habitual silence seemed defeated.
"Now what?" Elena asked.
"We press on," Sephiroth replied. Without Avalanche's help, they were on their own, and there was no other course to take. "We're going to see Lazard."
The former SOLDIER director lived in one of the humbler developments above plate. It wasn't a posh neighborhood by any stretch. The apartment buildings were located near the railway station and were plagued by noise, light, and constant traffic. In all honesty, it wasn't much different from the homes immediately below plate. Both had their drawbacks, but because of that, they were within the means of some of the mid-range managerial Shinra employees.
Bipedal soldiers patrolled the streets in pairs. The trains were not running despite the hour. It would mean Sephiroth and the Turks could not get lost in a crowd of commuters, but it also meant that the empty tracks would be safe to walk on. Below plate they had had to take the high road, now the low road was their best option. Downtown Midgar was its own maze of neon and concrete, and Sephiroth knew it better than he did the labyrinth of the slums. It did not take them long to reach Lazard's building, nor to scale the fire escape and tap on his window. His bewildered spouse, George, nearly fell out of his chair in surprise.
"Sephiroth!" he gasped, shoving the sash up and picking at the levers to remove the screen. "What in hells are you doing up here? You know there's a warrants out for your arrest with a 50,000 gil reward?"
Sephiroth helped him pop the screen off and maneuver it through the open window. "Fifty-thousand? I'm insulted. Even without the labor it took to build me, I'm worth far more than that."
Hastily, he climbed inside, followed closely by the Turks. George slammed and locked the window behind them. "This about the materia?"
"Yes," Sephiroth nodded. "I'm sorry to barge in like this, but I'm afraid it's important."
"I'm sorry, Deuce isn't here," George apologized, using an abbreviated form of his husband's first name. "He went below plate before curfew to speak with the Shinra board."
Sephiroth blinked. The only board members who still lived below plate were the Professor and…
"He's at Palmer's."
George nodded. "Yeah. He won't be back till tomorrow at the earliest."
"I'm afraid we can't wait. I'm sorry to have bothered you," Sephiroth apologized.
"Nice to see you," George told them by way of a farewell. "You kids be careful out there."
Sephiroth smiled for him as he ducked back out the window. "You too."
This was not the first time Scarlett had taken work home with her. However, said work was usually in the form of papers, or files, or bits and pieces of a stubborn prototype. Most recently, it had been the head of Urban Development that she brought home of an evening. This, however, was probably less forgivable than breaching the company's inter-office fraternization policy (not that anyone ever paid attention to that anyway). But she'd be damned if she was going to watch these kids get thrown to the wolves.
She remembered Sephiroth when he was younger. She had been wearing Turk blue when he was born, and had transferred to Weapons Development the same year hostilities had broken out in Wutai and he'd been shipped off to war. Although she was not part of the Science Department, she'd spent enough time on the 67th floor standing guard duty that she couldn't help feeling a sense of maternal responsibility toward the kid. With twenty years on him, she was old enough to be his mother, and the image of Sephiroth in her head was still that of a twelve-year-old who looked more like fifteen, a little boy excited to have a gun in his hands and stupidly proud of his new infantry uniform.
She didn't venture up to the 67th floor as often now that she had her own division to run, but she still saw the little silver-haired specimens from time to time. The oldest one was already making appearances in the training simulator. Another year and he'd be added to the ranks of the new recruits in the infantry, or he would have if Fin hadn't decided that letting the psychos out of the basement was the answer to the whole damn army walking out on him. Which was why she had to get him and the younger two out of here now
About the time she was sliding the hacked keycard through the lock of Yorozuya's door, it occurred to her that Hojo might actually be in favor of moving the kids somewhere safe. She could have asked. He might well have said yes. Still, so many years as a Turk had taught her it was better to beg forgiveness than ask permission- or better still, not to get caught in the first place. Either way, it was too late now.
"Auntie Scarlett?" The boy had been engaged in a textbook so thick that it would have made other eleven-year-olds burst into tears.
"Put your shoes on, sweetie," she said, holding out her hand. "We're going out."
"Where?" he asked, hastily pulling on a pair of sneakers that were nowhere near dirty enough to belong to a fourth grade boy. "To the training simulator?" Swinging a wooden sword at holograms was still new enough to be a novelty, and his face lit up with anticipation. Scarlet forced a smile for him.
"Sure. I want to show you and your brothers something."
"What?" he wanted to know, finally knotting the laces.
"You'll see," she said, ushering him out the door and down the hall. It was like herding cats trying to keep him and Yasuragi from wandering off or running ahead. How she was going to get all three of them down the stairs and out the door even with Avalanche setting everything within a six block radius on fire- there were only three of them, but Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie could do the sort of damage that normally required a small army- she had no idea.
"Scarlett?"
She froze in the act of pulling Katagi out the door. Hojo stood within ten paces, a bemused expression on his face.
"I was not apprised of your visit."
Internally blessing Bahamut for Turk reflexes, she leaned back on one foot and rolled her eyes. "As if you ever bother to read any of the memos I send you."
"No, that's what I keep Irena around for."
Scarlet shook her head. "I've developed a program on the simulator for the younger boys. I'm taking them down to run a few trials."
Hojo nodded and lifted his clipboard, squinting at the pages on it. "Very well. Mind you look after them."
"I will," she promised with more gravity than he'd ever realize, and hustled the children down the hall.
"Oh good, you made it!" Palmer greeted him cheerfully when Sephiroth knocked on his door. The rotund astronomer was all smiles as he led them through the kitchen and down the stairs to the lower level of his home. Sephiroth stopped short halfway down. He had been to war. He had gone toe-to-toe with a Force of Nature twice, yet this still made him stop and blink. Either this was some sort of bizarre Live-Action Role Play Game gone wrong, or Avalanche and the Shinra board were hiding out in Palmer's basement. He was bewildered enough that Elena had to poke him gently in the shoulder to get him to go down the remaining stairs to the basement floor. It was only then that he noticed the three children trying to play with every toy in Palmer's basement all at once.
"Boys!" Scarlett called, clapping her hands like a school teacher. The effect was the same. The children dropped what they were doing and lined up at attention in front of her.
"At ease," she told them, smiling. "Boys, you know who Sephiroth is. Go say hello."
It was surreal looking at the three of them in person. They had grown since the photographs had been taken. Yorozuya looked more like thirteen or fourteen despite being only eleven. He was still mostly child, but had the long rangey, body of a boy shooting up toward his adult height. Yasuragi had had his hair cut, but his bangs were already beginning to fall into his eyes again. Little Katagi just stood there and stared at him with large green eyes. More than ever, Sephiroth wished he could have brought Zack with him. He never knew what to say to people at the best of times. He had no experience with children, unless you counted Angeal and Genesis, and they'd all been of an age; children themselves. It wasn't quite the same thing. What did one say to three children to whom one was related, but had never met before?
Yorozuya gave him an over-precise salute, the younger two mimicking him half a beat later. Automatically, Sephiroth returned it.
"Auntie Scarlett says you're our big brother," Katagi spoke up. "Is that true?"
"Yes," Sephiroth answered. Without waiting for further explanation, Katagi stepped forward and threw his arms around Sephiroth's legs, hugging him tightly.
Sephiroth stumbled where he stood to compensate for the sudden forty pounds or so of small human now attached firmly to his leg. Unthinking, his hand drifted down to rest on the boy's head. Even through his gloves he could tell the silver hair was fine and soft and perfectly smooth. Yorozuya and Yasuragi hesitated a moment before following suit. Katagi was small yet, his head reaching only slightly higher than Sephiroth's waist. Yasuragi was also still just shy of five foot, and reached somewhere between Sephiroth's elbow and shoulder. Yorozuya, however, was nearly chest-high and he hid his face in the worn-soft fabric of his elder brother's sweatshirt. The gestures were awkward and unpracticed for all of them, born more of instinct than of family etiquette. These boys had no parents either; Lucrecia had been dead years before any of them had been conceived, and the Professor hardly counted. All they had was each other and himself. Sephiroth felt his arms curl around the little bodies clinging to him, pulling them closer.
"I'm glad you're safe," he told them. Looking down at faces that were like his and yet not, the thought of being separated from them suddenly seemed unbearable. He'd known them less than five minutes and yet did not want to leave them behind. The thing he'd always wanted most was looking up at him expectantly, but he still had work to do. Until Jenova was gone, his brothers, his family, would never be safe. He let his arms fall to his sides and the boys stepped back.
"Dismissed," he told them kindly. "Go and play. I… I have work to do. I'll come back for you, I promise."
The younger two returned to the toys readily enough, but Yorozuya looked up at him skeptically.
"You mean it?" he asked.
Sephiroth did not blame him. It had not taken him very long to learn to distrust the word of adults when he was that age. "I mean it," he said, placing his hand over his heart. Yorozuya looked at him narrowly, then stuck out one skinny hand. Sephiroth grasped it and shook, sealing their informal bargain. Only eleven and already behaving with all the seriousness of an adult. It wasn't easy to hold back a smile. He did not want to the boy to think he was laughing at him. With the greatest reluctance, he turned around to face the other adults in the room. He had all but forgotten they were there.
Everyone was here: Scarlett, Reeve, Lazard, even Heidigger, and three soot-covered people he assumed to be the Avalanche members. Far from casting suspicious glances in his direction, they grinned widely and waved. Bemused, Sephiroth waved back. Next to them, Lazard struggled to escape the deep cushions Palmer's well-worn sofa and limped over.
"Here," he said, pressing an object into Sephiroth's hands. "Take it and welcome. I hope it helps."
"Thank you," Sephiroth told him sincerely. "All of you. I just need to ask you one more favor- well, two."
"Name it, honey," Scarlett told him. "Whatever it is, we'll do it."
"I need you to get my brothers out of Midgar."
"Done!" Palmer declared. "I already have a plan."
"Good," Sephiroth nodded. That was one less thing for him to sort out himself. "I need to get into the Shinra building undetected."
All of them looked at him, then at each other, and back at him again.
"Have you lost your damn mind, boy?" Heidigger growled. "The place is crawling with Deepground monsters. Everyone in the city is looking for you! You're to be shot on sight!"
Sephiroth smirked. "They haven't found me yet, and I dare them to hit me."
Heidigger harrumphed and Scarlett bit her lip, clearly worried. "Why do you need to get in?" she asked.
"Because of this." Sephiroth held up Lazard's materia shard for all of them to see. "There are four pieces. This makes three. I need the fourth fragment in order to use the materia, and I think I know who has it."
Lazard blinked. "You do? Who?"
"Professor Hojo."
