Capitulating

At the small table in the garden around the Gainsborough home, Nina, Lady Shinra, Aeris, and Ed sat. Percia, Ifalna, Gast, and Elmyra were just standing around, as were the Unicorn and Odin Ed had called for help. The Cuahl now called Alba was tucked as far as she could be into the corner nearest Lady Shinra's seat, avoiding the other humans, and both Alexander and Odin, the two dog-type monsters, were sitting by Nina, leaning on each other. Everyone was just amusedly watching Nina babble to Lady Shinra about whatever came to mind, and even the woman's lips were twitching in amusement every now and then, though she covered it up very well.

Then, Percia felt a sudden sense like she should turn around, and found herself facing two Deepground members, one who was smirking and one with a neutral expression—or as much of one as she could see under their helmets. The smirking one called out, "So it looks like even the Tsviets couldn't kill Lady Shinra. Our kill, our kudos."

"You think you can kill her if no one else could?" Percia asked in surprised shock. Were people really that stupid? "Especially with this many other people here?"

The smirking one lifted his gun to point it at her as he commented, "I don't know that you all just want to be sitting around here when all of Deepground was given the order to attack and kill anyone nearby. It's especially bad in Wall Market. But—you're not going anywhere, since you're too much of a wild card, Percia of the Turks."

He shot at her, but she'd had so much warning all she had to do was lift her sheathed sword to block it, giving him a flat, unimpressed look. "Really. You and what army is going to kill me, when the only one of your people who has a chance of beating me is Weiss?"

Suddenly, Nina shrieked in alarm, "Ah! The kitties went to Wall Market earlier!"

"What kitties?" Ed asked in surprise.

"The kitties! Deneh and Nanaki kitties!" Nina said, slipping off her chair. He caught her and put her back on it as she complained, "But the kitties might be—"

"Completely fine," Ed cut her off, and Percia blinked at his calm tone. "And you would know it already if they weren't, because Minerva would have let you know, or you'd have felt them return to her. So, they're fine."

"That's a relief," Ifalna sighed, and Aeris nodded.

"I still don't think we want to leave them be for too long, though," Aeris added, then looked at the two Deepground people. "So, you came here to kill Percia, and will take the chance to kill Lady Shinra, too?"

"That sums it up," the smirking one agreed.

Suddenly, the one who hadn't said anything up to that point sighed, lifted his gun to the other's neck, and shot, making everyone gape at him. Then he said, "Sorry for doing that in front of a kid, but some of them just can't be salvaged." He then pulled off his helmet and told Percia, "He's right about the attack in Wall Market, too, but that's not the only attack. Literally everyone in Deepground who had no specific assigned task was forcibly given the command through the implant to attack and kill anyone nearby."

"That would explain the current death toll," Ed agreed. "Rosso mentioned something about that, too. I'm staying here with Lady Shinra for now, and we know for sure Elmyra's a non-combatant, so the rest of you can decide who's staying or going."

"I'm going to help the kitties!" Nina announced. When everyone looked at her in surprise, she added, "What? I fought in the Northern Crater, too!"

"You healed in the Northern Crater, Budling. You didn't fight," Aeris told her gently.

"I still helped!" Nina insisted. "And lots of people more than normal are going back to the nice lady, so I'm going to help them and the kitties!"

Percia just gave her head a shake and said, "I think it's too late to try to stop her after letting her go to places like that. And her brand of healing has benefits even Aeris can't match, so I think it's worth taking her along and protecting her as usual. Now, if we can stop trying to be over-protective, can we please go check on Deneh and Nanaki, and the situation in Wall Market?"

Everyone stared at her in amazement as Nina cheered and hopped off her seat, then joined the Turk, even as Alexander and Odin followed her. It didn't take long for Aeris to join them, but the others stayed behind.

And it was only when they found the mess left behind by the battle between the SOLDIERs and Deepground members in the Sector 5 Slums patrol unit that they realized they might really need a healer as powerful as Nina in Wall Market. At least most of the SOLDIERs were still alive, and a couple of the Deepground members, and like the one who had turned on his buddy at the house, all of them joined Percia and hers to find out what was wrong in Wall Market.

FoWD

Sephiroth was watching through the front window of the new airship called the Highwind as they approached Midgar from the air. Some undefined chaos was visible, but a sudden burst of black from the border of Sectors 5 and 6 had him send Cid in that direction. Cid obliged him, but they didn't see much in that area—a black spot flying away (probably Nero) and a pair of what were probably Turks on the ground near the hole.

Then, he noticed movement further over—towards the Sector 4 area—and realized those shapes were large and winged, and looked a lot like Dragons, amongst other things. "Cid, head for the Sector Four and Five border. I think we have a big problem there," he told the Captain of the Highwind.

"Yeah, yeah, headin' there now," the Captain replied dejectedly.

It didn't take long for the man to start cursing up a storm as he, like Sephiroth, realized the whole area of the Sector 4 Reactor was swarming with flying monsters from the Northern Crater and Cave. They weren't after the Reactor, but the city, and it looked like most of them were heading into Sector 4, since some SOLDIERs had stopped them in 5—Sephiroth thought one of those was Angeal. He was also sure some had gone below the Plate, but if no one was there to stop them in Sector 4, that would obviously be something they would take advantage of.

Until he realized someone was stopping them in Sector 4, but other than them being similar to a SOLDIER, he wasn't sure who it was. "In Sector Four, I'm going to head down to that one fighter stopping them on the road between the mall and the rec center."

"I'll join ya once I've got the weapons systems up," Cid agreed, waving him off.

Sephiroth headed for the loading bay, where one of the workers opened the door for him. Calling on his wings, he launched himself from the craft and aimed to dive-bomb one of the Dragon Zombies which was flying around and casting things like Pandora's Box on unsuspecting civilians. Thankfully, they were in an area where there weren't many of them, but it was the middle of the day, so it would be hard to find none in an area. A single slice took it down, so he landed beside the other fighter as she (he could now tell) finished off a Death Dealer.

"What happened here, Argento?" he asked as both of them faced the next incoming enemies.

"It's a lot more complicated than this mess, I was just lucky to have been out here in effective isolation when the monsters arrived and the order transmitted," she told him in a pained tone. "But now I can't leave, because this needs to be stopped, before they think they should start flying right over all the buildings."

"Clarify, please?" he asked. "Most of that was decidedly cryptic."

The Tsviet sighed and explained once she took down a Deathgaze, "The monsters came up just about at the same time our implanted control chips were activated with the command to attack anyone nearby. Past this to the edge of the Plate is mostly warehouses, and this is the rear of both the mall and rec center, so there's not a lot of traffic, foot or vehicle, on this side. That meant my command let me default to attacking the monsters. That was when I realized there's no one else to stop them, and all the rest of Deepground has gone on the offensive."

"Well damn," he muttered, realizing this was just as dangerous as the issue with Deepground. It was also likely others were dealing with that, but because they were, no one was left to notice a monster invasion, let alone stop it.

Suddenly, the Highwind shot a volley of bullets into the attacking monsters, which made Argento pause in surprise to look up at the airship. "They're helping?" she asked the man beside her.

"Yeah," he agreed wryly. "They just needed to get their weapons online. Cid also claimed he's joining us here, so the Highwind's cover fire should keep them grounded while three of us can finish the job. Or two of us if he decides not to join us on the ground."

Her expression became amused as a long, "Yaaaaahooooo!" sounded from above before a spear with a blond man attached to it landed on a Tycoon.

"I believe he joined us," she said, aiming an attack at a Shadow Monk nearby.

"Obviously," Sephiroth agreed in equal amusement.

With that, they braced themselves for the fight. It was obviously going to keep them busy for awhile.

FoWD

When Rufus and the Deepground people with him reached LOVELESS Avenue, they found a huge group of Deepground people almost right outside the Theater—it wasn't just one patrol group. Actually, if he was reading it right, most of them were supposed to be resting, and the SOLDIERs who would have been with the actual patrol were all obviously dead. So were all the people who hadn't been able to run fast enough when the attack started, and Rufus snarled silently at that. Now that they weren't being controlled by the chips, they had stopped killing, but instead had taken a few civilians for 'sport' and were torturing them.

He wasn't sure the full extent of the damages, but he realized it was likely some of the group had broken off to pursue other civilians down the streets and alleys. The only problem he could see was the sheer number of them there, probably over a hundred. But, there was nothing for it, so they'd have to attack.

As he opened his mouth, a voice behind him said, "I hope you're not plannin' to attack without backup, yo."

Turning, the blond man saw the red haired Hound called Reno, and asked with a frown, "Is there backup for anyone to send?"

Reno apparently thought about that for a moment, his brow furrowed a bit, then said, "I'm not sure, yo. Might be someone around now. But that—this ain't a big enough force ta handle it."

Giving an annoyed huff, Rufus replied, "We can't just do nothing!"

"Don't have ta, yo," the red haired man smirked. "We can pick 'em off, like the ones they sent ta get new 'toys' ta play with. They ain't the brightest bunch, 'n' don't even notice someone not comin' back—been pickin' off strays since they settled here. Can't do much for the ones they already got, but—keeps 'em from gettin' more, yo."

Rufus blinked, then blinked again and asked, "Have you been asking any of those if they would rather get out than stay in?"

"Gave 'em a chance ta not fight me," Reno shrugged. "So far, they ain't taken it, yo."

"Most of them probably wouldn't," one of the Deepground people said quietly. Others nodded. "But—picking people off? That's okay?"

"That's tactics," Reno told them bluntly. "That's what ya do when you're outnumbered an' overpowered by the enemy an' ya know it, yo."

Silence fell for a moment, then Rufus nodded and faced them. "I'll split you into groups, and as long as you're far enough from the main group that you won't attract attention, you're free to announce yourselves to them and duel one-on-one if you want, as long as the only survivors are others who are willing to protect rather than kill and torture. Reno, which ways do most of the 'strays' take?"

The red haired Turk pointed out the most used paths, and as they were arranging groups, Illis joined them. "I was sent a message by Lazard," she replied to their surprised looks. "Apparently you needed help here. Are they torturing people?"

"Yes, and until we have a force sufficient to deal with them, we'll have to settle for keeping them there and without any new 'toys'," Rufus sighed. "But that will give us now three Turks to help cover three of the four most used ways out of there."

"Okay," the woman agreed. "Make sure I know as soon as we can attack head-on."

His lips quirked as Reno snorted softly. "That's the idea," Rufus told her. "So I'll send you with them over to the far alley beside the Theater." He motioned to the group of Deepground men (and two women) heading for that location, and Illis nodded and went with them. He then allocated Reno to one, and they left. The rest of the groups followed, until only his was left for the route last most used route—the one they'd come from. Now it was just a waiting game.

FoWD

Vincent had already been tired when he'd gotten the call from Eonna about Tseng's situation, but before he'd been able to call the Wutain, he'd gotten a message from Sonna asking what to do now that the battle in the cafeteria was over. At that, he'd had to ask for clarification, so she'd given him a summary of the events and her finishing up the healing of as many Cadets and their teachers as she could save. Apparently, she'd helped a SOLDIER Second take down Azul, which was no small feat, and it definitely improved the internal situation. In response, he'd told her to meet him at the stairs on floor fifty-nine.

Before he headed there, he got back to sending a call to Tseng. "Yes?" the Wutain asked warily as he answered it.

"Why is Heidegger chasing you?" the older man asked without preamble. He didn't think they had time for anything like that.

"I don't know," Tseng answered. "He accused me of doing something, but never specified what. I know I didn't do anything. Though, I think we have a security breach in Security itself, because I'm pretty sure the officer who was just leaving as I got to the office Heidegger was using is the one who actually did whatever deed and left me to take the blame. That also means he was no Security officer, or he'd have reacted to the commotion, not walked away."

Vincent hissed, then asked, "Where are you now?"

There was a pause before Tseng answered in a low, almost hissing voice, "In motion through the room network on this floor. I can't be any more specific when I have to keep moving."

"Okay, we'll find you. Do your best to stay safe until we get there," Vincent replied, then hung up. A breach in Security. Deepground going off the deep end. And Tseng about to be killed for something he didn't do. He was going to have to change his initial game plan, and it was highly likely Heidegger wasn't going to survive.

Heading up to floor fifty-nine—and more than thankful to have gotten a message from Lady Shinra to assure him she was all right and to ask Lazard if he needed direction to another task—he assessed his new plan. When he got there, Sonna wasn't there yet, but he'd known she was coming from a bit of a bad place, since the trainee rooms weren't easy to get out of quickly.

The only problem was that he didn't know she was there until she asked, "What did you need me for, Sir?"

He actually jumped, and heard a giggle from the air to his right, making him give an annoyed scowl in that direction. "Show off," he muttered, then sighed. "Heidegger is trying to kill Tseng, and we have a security breach in Security. I have a guess as to what happened, but I need to find the perpetrators as quickly as possible and eliminate them. I can't leave Tseng, though, so I'd like you to find him and help him. You can tell him he has the right to kill Heidegger if the situation calls for it, but hopefully your skills will get the two of you out of there safely."

"So...Basically, find him somewhere on that floor when I have no idea where he is, and help him get out again?" she reiterated, her disembodied voice somehow sounding decidedly dry. "And let him know he has the right to kill an executive if push comes to shove."

"That about sums it up," Vincent agreed dryly. "And don't worry—that sort of order fits a large number of our missions, so it's good practice for you."

She made an exasperated noise, but then he saw the door open enough to let a person slip through. It closed a moment later, so he took a moment to think about the most likely place he'd find the traitors.

The main security room, where all the cameras were, and where they would probably want to hope they could watch the show as Tseng died.

With that, he slipped out from the stairwell and headed in that direction, using Chaos' shadowy skills to hide from the cameras on his path. He couldn't do it often, but he only couldn't avoid three cameras, which was within his ability to hide from with that power, so he'd take advantage. Once he was just outside the door, he knew the room was occupied, and it was then only a question of 'by who?' Since that was also where one of the cameras was which he couldn't avoid, he slipped quietly into the room and listened to the two guards as they tried to find traces of Tseng.

Dropping his shadow form, he said, "Take off your helmets and show me your ID."

They jumped and spun to face him in shock—then attacked him. Well, that made it easy, so he drew his gun as he dodged forward, not to the side, and got between them. One shot to one, a second to the other, and they were falling. Then, he activated magic in the form of Lightning 3 to fry them similarly to what they'd have gotten from Fire 3. It was effective, and they were dead—and that was when he noticed a dead guard who had been put against the same wall the door was on.

A check of the screens also showed Tseng—and Sonna and Heidegger—was nowhere to be found where there were cameras. That worried him, so he left the room and made his way through the rooms on the floor, using Chaos' senses to guide him. Soon, though, he didn't need Chaos' senses—the screams were good enough.

FoWD

Sonna had been annoyed by the orders because she had nothing to go on more than anything. She had only been to the Security floor once, and she had no idea what rooms were there or not. Finding they were like an interlinked honeycomb was a shock to her system and made her mentally curse—this was going to be harder than she'd thought.

Until she turned a corner, saw something black slip through a door, and made to follow it—only for something large and heavy to slam into her and knock her to the floor with a bellow of surprise and rage. It was heavy, and it wasn't getting up, and she was sure it was a very large man, which meant Heidegger. She knew Tseng wasn't that big—he was rather delicate for such a strong man—but she also knew the Security Guards weren't that big, either. And he still wasn't getting up as he lay on her and huffed for breath.

Then suddenly, as she got her own breath back enough to think, like to maybe cast something like float, he seized her wrists and pushed himself up enough to see her. And then, he began laughing as he shouted, "Hey, you filthy Wutain traitor, are you going to just walk away and let me hurt your pretty new Turk?" The pressure increased on one of her arms and she realized what he was doing—but before she could register more than that, she felt the bone snap and she screamed in pain, a reflex action she couldn't have stopped if she'd wanted to. Then, he broke her other arm, too, and she screamed again.

Right then, through the haze of pain, she had a sudden sense that Tseng was watching in horror, and in indecision. She somehow could feel that he wanted to help her, but that he wasn't sure he could, and she hadn't been able to give him Vincent's message yet...

She wasn't sure if his proximity was comforting or not. Depending on what Heidegger did to her now that she wasn't really in a state to stop him, Tseng may not have time to act to save her. She just hoped Heidegger wouldn't think to break her neck. And now she knew completely why he was on their private execution list—this kind of man should never have been given the power to treat people the way he was her.

"Oh, that's not good enough, is it?" Heidegger shouted. "Then I'll do something worse, and the only way to stop it is if you hand yourself to me so I can finally kill you! Painfully!"

She drew in a sharp breath as her head spun when he grabbed the front of her uniform, and it wasn't until her head settled again that she realized he'd torn open her shirt. The actual horror only dawned on her when she felt him pawing her breast, and she screamed, "No, stop!" The fat man only laughed, then moved his hands to her pants and began tearing them—

There was a surreal moment when the man froze with an expression of surprise on his face, but then he slumped over sideways, falling in slow motion to the ground beside her. A moment later, she felt shockingly strong healing magic flow over her, healing her arms and some bruises she hadn't known she had—

Then, she felt strong arms wrapping around her as a slender, trembling form pulled her tightly against it and whispered repeatedly, "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry!" She realized the one holding her was a man, but she also realized he wasn't hurting her, and her emotions finally started flowing properly.

She lifted her arms to wrap them around him tightly—she knew it was Tseng—and burst into tears as she hid her face in his shoulder and pulled her legs up close. The other man let her, just held her and let her cry. She wasn't sure how long they stayed like that, but she knew she was exhausted by the time she found she no longer had tears to cry.

Vincent's voice asking quietly, "What happened?" startled her. That was also when the shame hit, so she stayed 'hidden' right where she was.

"Heidegger ran into her by accident—I guess Sonna was the other one you meant when you said 'we'?" Vincent gave an affirmative, so Tseng went on, "I wasn't sure what I should do or how far Heidegger would go to flush me out, since he's fantastic at posturing. He broke her arms, then—he was going to rape her, and I'm sure it would have gone that far if I hadn't—"

Vincent sighed heavily. "It's all right. We'll get her counseling with Doctor Crescent, and you haven't done anything wrong—if she'd had a chance to talk with you before that, you'd have known I gave you permission to kill him if the situation called for it, and that did. It was a cruel thing to do just to get to you, and I'm glad you stopped it before it went all the way. This is already bad enough. Maybe after this, you need counseling, too."

"But I'm not the one he—" Tseng began.

"Try to tell me you weren't having flashbacks to when you were ten, Tseng," Vincent cut him off, and Sonna's breath caught in her throat as she realized what that meant. She suddenly knew why she felt safe with him.

A long pause followed, then a heavy sigh. "I'd rather Ifalna and Aeris."

"Fine, but you will talk with them about this, all right? And maybe take Sonna with you as well, since Lucrecia often does suggest Ifalna to people who need a completely unbiased opinion or advice."

"...All right," the Wutain man agreed.

"Now, I have other things to deal with, so I would suggest the two of you find a quiet place to hide out—probably on the Turks' floors. With Deepground running around, even the Science Department isn't safe right now."

The sigh Tseng heaved was heavy, but he gave a nod Sonna felt instead of seeing. "Thank you," he said.

It took several more minutes before he tried to get her to rise and walk with him back to her room on the Turks' library floor, and by then, Vincent was long gone. She was grateful, otherwise he'd have seen her torn shirt and suit jacket.