A/N: Remember that it's just coming up to lunch time in Midgar right now. And readers can feel free to skip my reply to my guest reviewer, unless you want to read it.

Phoenix: Thank you for the review! When I was working on the Catalyst Array series, I made use of a Pokemon-like franchise tie-in because Gaia would have had to have a similar game franchise for certain things to happen in Before Crisis chapter 20. The point is—that was a game, not the real Gaia. Said game is also highly unlikely to appear in this story.

For real Gaia, I don't think using Pokemon as people's partners is valid. It would have to be restricted to creatures that actually exist (or could exist) in the FFVII world, or which could have come out of the Shinra Labs. When I created the fox one of the characters has, it's actually just a normal fox which was bred in Wutai to have some specialty abilities—Wutai's version of genetic and scientific experimentation.

So, if you figure you could find certain Pokemon which are just normal animals (no, Pikachu doesn't count, because it doesn't look at all like a mouse or rat) and could have gained powers from the Labs, I might be able to use them, but they aren't really going to look like Pokemon or have the same powers. And I don't want ones that are especially large, like Dragons (they couldn't take them into the Shinra building if they were too big). That would include qualifying Legendaries, for all of those requirements.

If you really want to do that much work, you're welcome to offer ideas, but if not, you've already offered plenty of ideas, so it's not like you're being left out in the cold! :D

Now, on with the story!

Deepground

Not long after the four 'Turks' and Sephiroth had boxed in the Restrictors, Cloud noted how people began trickling in to the office, which also made him and Tifa move aside slightly. To his surprise, it was Genesis who arrived first (was it just him, or did the man have way more Materia on him than normal?), followed closely by a Third who was somehow familiar to him, but it wouldn't come to him. The red haired man glanced around the room curiously, then made his way to Sephiroth's side, casually leaning on the wall beside him, and the Third followed him. The next to arrive were several of the Turks—likely they had been in the office, not elsewhere on those floors or in the building. He just wished he wasn't so jittery around Sephiroth, just waiting on him going Nightmare on him...

Their arrival caused Tifa to send a questioning look his way, so he whispered to her, "I kinda have to guess, but I think the phone call was a code to call a lot of powerful people to his office 'now'. If more Firsts and the rest of the available Turks start arriving soon, that's what it was for." She nodded to show she understood.

In the meantime, the Turks' eyes went to Veld (he'd turned to face the room), and Cloud caught a slight motion of his hand. Again, he only knew the result of it by the way others—the Turks—reacted to it, which was to surround the Restrictors. He also noted faint amusement from Vincent, and made a mental note to ask him why the motion Veld had made had produced such a feeling from him.

Angeal and a few other Firsts made their way into the room next, paused to blink at the circle of relaxed-but-alert Turks around the two Restrictors, and joined Genesis and Sephiroth. Soon after, the rest of the Turks trickled in, joining the circle around those two men, followed by several more Firsts. At that point, the President sighed, set his pen down, pushed the papers back, and rose to face the two Restrictors.

"So, here is the first order of business," he said, looking at the two Restrictors from behind a wall of Turks. "As much as I would have preferred this not be known until it was finalized, if what you've said is true and Weiss has done so much damage, we're all going to head down to Deepground to see what's happening there. In case Weiss is still 'insane' when we get there, I need as many guards as I can get, so everyone here will be joining us. Someone will have to stay here until all the Firsts have arrived to let them into the lift and into Deepground. And you're going to make sure all the traps have been deactivated until we've left again. Am I clear?"

"...Yes, Sir," one of the two Restrictors replied, though it sounded like he was gritting his teeth.

With that agreement, the President chose his primary group, saying, "General, Commanders, Vincent, Veld, you'll be on point and my primary guards. Because I gather Weiss is still fairly young, he might take better to the presence of other children, so the two new members of Turk staff—those two Nibelheim children—will join us. I also want Kariya, and—Veld, who are the three longest-running Turks here right now?"

"That would be Anki, Leana, and Sirra (1). Anki and Sirra are primarily ranged, and Leana uses a swallowtail blade," Veld told the man.

"Good. They'll join us in the first lift down," the President agreed, then turned and pointed at a random First. "You'll stay here until all the rest of the Firsts have gone down, and will join the last group. With the inclusion of weapons, I believe the lift will work for about eighteen. I can take three more Firsts with me. Turks, divide yourselves into two groups, one each in the next two groups to come down the lift; the remaining space in those two groups will be Firsts. Let's go."

With that, he led the way towards the lift, those who had been given positions shuffling to accommodate those orders. Sephiroth and the Commanders (and the Third) moved away from the lift doors to fall into place around the President as he and the Restrictors approached the doors. Vincent and Sephiroth took the point positions in front of the man, with Genesis and Angeal to either of his sides, and Veld, Kariya, and Kunzel closed a tight circle around him. Cloud and Tifa quickly found places close to that circle, too, and the others gathered behind them in the lift.

It quickly descended into Deepground, though because the sides were open and it moved in a spiral, everyone was bracing themselves against the wind current. When they reached the bottom, Cloud heard Sirra mutter, "That's a fucking long lift ride. How far down did we just go?"

"About as far down, maybe more, as the whole height of the Shinra building plus the height of Midgar itself," dark haired Leana answered softly, a frown evident in her voice.

"Fuck—we're under Midgar?" Sirra asked in shock, though she still had the sense to keep her voice low.

Cloud answered with a faint smirk, "You got it, Lady Turk."

"Brat," the half-Wutain woman muttered.

Walking into Deepground in these circumstances was interesting, to say the least. It was nearly empty for one thing, and for another, it didn't look like semi-collapsed ruins. It had a ghostly feel to it, but was otherwise well-kept (other than one area which looked like it had been destroyed by bombs), and there were some members nearby, but not the kind of quantity which had last been there in the future.

Of course, all of those members stopped what they were doing to stare at the group—especially as more and more of the Turks and Firsts came down, filling space around and behind the President. In total, though, there were still only around fifty Firsts besides the General and Commanders, and Cloud wasn't sure what he counted as. They only advanced as much as they needed to so they could clear space for the new arrivals, until all of them were there.

That was also the first time Cloud had seen evidence of intelligence (actual mental ability, not greed) from the President, as the man spent the first ten minutes frowning at the surroundings, then faced Veld. It was only Cloud's enhanced hearing which let him hear the man say, "Send out teams of a Turk with three Firsts to investigate the state of things here, Veld. Something isn't adding up, and I want to know what it is. Oh, but don't send Valentine, Kariya, or the children."

"Of course, Sir," Veld agreed, pulling out his PHS to send notices for teams to split away from the main group and start poking around. It didn't escape his notice that the Restrictors were even more upset by that turn of events, and that also set his nerves on edge. They were backing the Restrictors into a corner, and it was likely they would bite back soon.

About twenty minutes later, everyone was down in Deepground, and there was still no sign of any 'potential attack' or 'insane Weiss' (or any of the Tsviets, for that matter), leaving him to wonder where they were. Somehow, their lack of presence was worrying, and he found he had to box away that worry for awhile so he didn't make a fatal mistake at this point. After all, if they could get to Weiss now—they were going to do it. Even though he didn't like Shinra, he was slowly adapting to certain people not being enemies, and knew Weiss was one of them.

"So, what happened to that part of town there?" the President asked of the Restrictors as the last Firsts were setting about their tasks there (to stay with his group or go with Turks).

"That was Weiss' fault," one of the Restrictors answered almost bitingly. Cloud knew that as a reaction to personal hatred—when had the Restrictors gotten a personal hate on Weiss?

"Where is he now?" Shinra asked.

"The Tsviets should all be in their rooms," the other Restrictor answered.

"Lead the way, then. Those not assigned to other tasks will all be joining us," the President answered decisively.

"We won't all fit in the small, utilitarian rooms here," the second Restrictor pointed out, and Cloud wondered if someone had glued his teeth together, because he'd never spoken without sounding like his teeth were grinding.

"I'm aware of the size of things here," Shinra replied dismissively. "Now, lead the way." The two men did, and Cloud eyed the buildings around them warily as they walked, wondering about how dead the place seemed without a full host of people.

Soon after, the men led the way to a building possibly akin to an apartment building, where they all halted in the lobby as a startled Rosso and Nero froze at the foot of the stairs leading up. "Ah, Rosso the Crimson and Nero the Sable. Perhaps you can shed some light on the situation for me?" the President asked the two.

They traded looks, then Rosso offered, "We could try, Sir." Cloud was also left trying to puzzle out why something seemed...different about them. It wasn't just their age, it was something else, something far less tangible. In a way, they seemed like normal, worried children, not born-and-bred child soldiers.

President Shinra told them, "I've been informed Weiss went insane and killed a large number of the members recently. What can you tell me?"

"Weiss didn't go insane at all!" Nero gaped. "He wasn't the one who had a choice—the Restrictors forced him to fight until he couldn't anymore!"

"And that happened five days ago, if that's 'recent'," Rosso threw in. "It was a free-roaming Alexander who killed most of the members and two of the Restrictors when they attacked Weiss directly to kill him."

"You little—!" one Restrictor began.

"Did you think we'd lie for you after you tried to kill Weiss? Our leader?" Nero asked angrily in reply. Cloud was partially surprised by the answer, but partially not. Nero had always been almost obsessive about his brother, the only person who hadn't feared him. Which he supposed was a valid point. But this time, it didn't look like Rosso had any fear of him whatsoever...

When the Restrictor lifted a hand to hit the boy, Vincent's metal hand lashed out to seize his wrist—and he wasn't being gentle, so the man withdrew with a small hiss of pain. When he was far enough away, Vincent let him go, expression bland, and Cloud still wondered how the undead man could manipulate his expression so easily.

"What caused the damage to the town, then?" President Shinra asked with a small frown, ignoring the Restrictor and Vincent.

"That was from a training exercise where the Restrictors told Weiss and a small team to hold the location, but didn't tell them not to use the explosives hidden there," Nero answered. "It was what led to things the way they are now."

"So...There are no signs of damage to the town, besides that prior damage, because Weiss wasn't attacking random people while insane?" the President clarified.

"The training room they did it in is damaged, but otherwise, no," Rosso said plainly. "And the Alexander even only left because Argento promised it Weiss would be able to rest and recover after how badly damaged he was." Cloud was left trying to figure out why a free-roaming Summon (Eidolon, as Minerva had called them) would have come to Weiss' aid.

"And if it's been five days since then, what have you been doing since?" the blond man asked of them.

"Weiss, Argento, and Azul haven't been allowed to leave our room, and Rosso and I have only been allowed to leave for food," Nero offered.

That made nearly everyone frown, but it was Sephiroth who asked, "While I would grasp Weiss and Argento not being able to leave because of the Alexander's interference, why would this—Azul person not be allowed to?"

Both Rosso and Nero blinked, then traded looks, then Rosso shook her head and said, "We don't know. I guess something happened when we weren't there?"

The President turned to look at the Restrictors and asked, "Well?" The two men refused to answer, and Cloud realized it could have been that Azul tried to attack them for some reason. While that would have been odd to some degree, maybe not. He really felt like he was out of the loop with what was happening in Deepground, because no one was behaving quite like normal.

"Very well," the President said, realizing the Restrictors weren't going to answer. "Here's what we'll do. From here on out, only my named guards will proceed with me, and the other Firsts will guard checkpoints as per protocol between here and the room where Weiss is. After I've spoken with him, I want to see the damaged training room. If you would lead the way, Gentlemen?"

Everyone was left gaping in surprise as the Restrictors actually turned and left rather than do as demanded, but Cloud had a sudden bad feeling. A tug on Vincent's cape caused the man to turn to look at him, and he could see apprehension in the undead Turk's gaze as well. He wasn't the only one, and that was more worrying than if it had just been him. Since the Restrictors were gone, though, all eyes moved to Rosso and Nero.

"Well, I suppose that leaves the two of you, Rosso, Nero, to lead us to the room," the President said to them, and they gave quiet agreement before leading the way up to the room, Firsts separating out from the group as they went.

When they walked in, Weiss was resting with his eyes closed on one couch, Azul was pacing agitatedly, and Argento sat in a chair across from Weiss, reading. The three all looked up as Rosso and Nero stepped inside, but Rosso announced, "President Shinra wanted to talk with you."

Cloud noted Weiss blink in surprise as the first people he saw were Sephiroth and Vincent, then saw him blink again at him and Tifa, and then stare at Genesis. His gaze finally moved to the President after passing over the rest of the group, and he gingerly pushed himself up to stand and face the President. "You wanted to talk with me, Sir?" Weiss asked the man, keeping his voice even and bland in the way Cloud knew was a way of hiding pain.

"I did," the man agreed. "First, if what Rosso and Nero said is true, there was no reason for you to be restricted to these rooms, Azul the Cerulean. Why have you been?"

Azul faced the man and answered harshly, "When those bastard bullies went after the strongest of us so harshly, then didn't give him appropriate time to recover, Argento and I attacked the one sent to escort Weiss to his next 'training session'. Since they know they can't completely control me, they had me stay here after Weiss' savior finally disappeared."

After a pause, the blond man nodded, then faced Argento. "You also attacked a Restrictor, Argento?"

"I did, for the same reasons as Azul," she replied evenly, not moving from her seat as she held her book open on her lap, though she was at least looking at the man. "They normally give us sufficient recovery time, but this time, they just kept pushing Weiss, and even after five days, he's still not fully recovered. He has the greatest recovery rate of all of us, so that says a great deal."

Nodding at the woman, the President looked at Weiss and asked, "So, what's your side of the story, Weiss the Immaculate?"

Weiss blinked again, but obediently explained what had been happening in Deepground since he'd arrived in the past. A glance at Genesis had him offer what had happened to assist his recovery—the President asked to see the mark on his chest, so he showed it to the man (and everyone else by extension)—and Cloud was boggled by it all. Damn, Deepground had really been hit hard by one slight change! What in the world was going on?

As the white haired boy had been talking, Cloud's sense of danger spiked and he slipped back outside to quietly ask the First outside the door, "Can you find out if anything in the town has changed since we came in here?"

Holding up his PHS, the First replied apprehensively, "I've been getting notes from my friends saying a bunch of the Deepground people have disappeared, and they aren't in the cafeteria or training rooms."

Cloud's eyes widened as he ran back into the room, just in time to hear the President sigh, "Well, that certainly wasn't what I was expecting to hear..."

"Something's wrong! We have to go, now!" Cloud shouted in alarm.

"What?" several voices asked, and Vincent hissed and jumped past Cloud to get out of the building and reach the nearest exit to Deepground (2) as fast as possible.

"We have to get out of here now!" Cloud insisted. "Someone take Weiss, and call all the others back to the lift—that's nearest from here." Tifa joined him immediately.

There were several blinks, then the President said, "But the lift should always be available."

"It's got codes to shut it down, though, doesn't it?" Genesis asked, moving over to lift Weiss onto his back (3). "Because everything military does. And the Restrictors have reason to not like you right now. We had better leave. Whatever the Turks have by now is what they have, and that's all."

"Kariya, can't you just blow up anything in our way?" the owner of Shinra Company demanded of the Turk.

"Sorry, bombs don't work on everything," Kariya replied. "And I'd risk bringing down the whole of Midgar if I used one of the ones which would actually get through the doors leading to the lift. That would rather defeat the purpose."

With a huff, the man said, "Fine. Veld, send out a notice to the Turks to tell them and their guards to get back to the lift immediately. Let's head back in that direction."

Everyone headed out of the room at a quick pace, Argento, Azul, Rosso, and Nero joining them (though Argento took a minute to catch up, and had a bag in her hand when she did, which she passed to Weiss). Sephiroth had also taken out his PHS, and Cloud watched him out of the corner of his eye as he apparently did the same thing as Veld. It hadn't occurred to Cloud, ever, that the man would be a genuinely good leader, but here he was, showing he actually cared about his troops. They were outside the building (the Firsts who had been left as guards were with them) and heading down the street towards the lift soon after.

"What about anyone from Deepground who's still in here? Do we just leave them to rot?" the Third suddenly asked, and several people stiffened, including the President.

"Veld, tell the Turks to bring along anyone they find who's still here. I'm sure some of them are in the Labs," the President ordered, and Cloud wondered why he had needed that reminder to begin with. Giving his head a small shake, he knew he would never ask a man like that one for anything, any related blood between them or not.

Suddenly, there was a screeching noise from above, making them all look up—to see the ceiling bending and twisting as some of it suddenly dropped towards the ground, which caused everyone's eyes to widen in shocked horror.

It was Genesis who reacted first, calling, "Bahamut Fury, we need your help to protect us from the ceiling collapsing!" The named Fury appeared, immediately catching debris which would have hit them otherwise, but so did a Bahamut, a Bahamut ZERO, a Titan, and a Shiva. Cloud somehow knew Genesis had called all of them, even if he'd only announced the one...Which shouldn't have been possible, since everyone could only summon one Summon at a time, unless they had a Double Summon (4), which would still only allow them to call two...

Still, all five beings took shape as pieces of the ceiling fell, and the single largest of the Bahamuts, ZERO, effectively plastered itself to the ceiling to hold it in place. The other two Bahamuts began catching or redirecting debris, and Shiva began sealing parts of the ceiling in place with ice as Titan began building stone pillars to hold it up. Zack prompted Cloud to, :Call on several with your mind only,: so Cloud grabbed the Master Summon in his bag (he and Tifa had been carrying them around since leaving Tseng's room) and called ones similar to those already out—another Shiva, Titan, and Bahamut, and a Neo Bahamut. The Neo was larger than Bahamut, so joined ZERO to hold the ceiling up as the others helped their existing fellows.

Then, more Summons appeared, and while Cloud was sure he knew who had summoned them—Vincent and Weiss—it was unlikely the majority knew. There was a third Titan, Shiva, and Bahamut, a second ZERO and Neo, and a bunch of decidedly durable shields around everyone as a small, aqua-colored creature with wing-like ears hopped amongst them. The last Summon, Cloud remembered seeing in 'that space' with Minerva. Each copied the ones of their kind already present, and everyone on the ground watched the ceiling warily as they ran for the lift.

It was surreal to realize the cavern ceiling had a metal grid above it, which was the thing actually holding up the weight of Midgar. If it took too much damage—which the explosions causing the ceiling to buckle and collapse were doing—the city above would be done for.

The other problem was how they could hear snarling and screeching coming from that direction. When they arrived, they found Vincent in the lift door, obviously straining to hold it open, as two Turks and eight Firsts fought a monster. It was large, easily the size of a King Behemoth, and covered in heavy, metal plates which were clearly a type of armor (5). The two Turks were Reno and Doriss (a blond woman who used twin daggers) (6), neither of whom had a weapon terribly effective against the monster.

When Vincent saw them, he shouted in a strained voice, "Demi Blade!" It was then clear to everyone that the door was trying to close and seal, causing several people to pale. Veld accessed his PHS again to send a message.

Genesis shoved Weiss at Kariya, who had been right next to him, then drew his blade, switched his Materia, and flared with energy as he jumped as high as he could. Cloud was surprised he wasn't flaring with flames, but rather with something purple-ish which seemed to be the color produced by the Demi spells. With the full force of the Materia's energy and his own, Genesis hit the monster square on the back, between its shoulder blades. The impact made the monster shriek, blasted some of its metal scales off, and sent Genesis flying many meters into the air. Before he could fall more than a few feet, the golden Bahamut Fury caught him.

In the meantime, with the monster stumbling and several plates gone, the SOLDIERs charged at it to keep its attention on them—a few of them even knocked some additional loose scales off. With that distraction, Doriss used the grappling feature on her thigh holsters to swing over, grab Reno, and carry him with her onto the monster's back. Once there, she stabbed her blades deeply into the monster's lungs, and Reno set his EMR to the maximum setting and touched her blades with it, channeling the killing force of the EMR right into its lungs. It gave one final shriek, then collapsed as Fury put Genesis down nearby.

"Get out, now!" Vincent shouted. "Stop holding things up! I can't hold this open forever!" And he was primarily using his metal arm—a cybernetic implant—to keep it open.

Everyone ran for the doors, slipping past him—except for Sephiroth, Angeal, and Azul, who also put their weight into keeping the door open. The space beyond could only hold so many, and they would have to wait for the lift, though the President keyed something into the lift panel before getting on it, himself. Cloud only watched the boarding for a minute before meeting Vincent's gaze, and the man motioned with his head for the blond boy to head up the lift with the others. So, he turned and joined Tifa and the President—and all those who could fit—on the first lift heading to the surface, getting on just before it started moving.

Everyone but the President was surprised when the lift stopped at the Shinra building lobby rather than going all the way up to the President's office. "Everyone off so we can send it back down!" the President shouted, and they all stumbled off, even as everyone in the lobby turned to stare at them in shock. Cloud pulled Tifa to the side, where Veld had moved to keep an eye on things, reaching up to tug on the man's sleeve to get his attention. Genesis and the remaining Tsviets took up guard positions around the President, so Veld taking a lookout stance was apparently acceptable.

"What?" the Turk asked as he eyed the lobby warily.

"Have you got a way to make a checklist to be sure everyone's up?" Cloud asked.

Veld looked down at him in surprise, then towards the lift for a moment before he said, "I can. Give me a minute—and go find a place where you're not in the way, both of you. This is something you can't help with."

Even though the words made Cloud frown (though anyone looking at him would have called it a pout), he led Tifa over to where Kariya was sitting not far from Genesis...Though, was it just him, or were they deliberately ignoring each other? "What's wrong?" he asked quietly of the man, who glanced up at him, the action only barely visible behind his shades.

"What makes you think something's wrong?" Kariya asked in reply.

"Besides you and Genesis avoiding each other while staying close, you mean?" Cloud asked dryly.

"That could just be chance!" Tifa protested.

"Nothing is 'just chance' with Turks, Tifa," Cloud sighed, and her brow furrowed.

Kariya's lips quirked upward in clear amusement, but he said, "That's personal and private, kiddo. When it's resolved, you may find out, but not until then." The words produced an annoyed look from Cloud and surprise from Tifa, but they both fell silent.

They waited quietly for several minutes before Tifa said quietly, "I hope everyone will get out okay..."

"So do I," Cloud sighed. Chances were some of them would be injured by falling debris, though.

If he knew anything about the men (other than Azul) who had stayed to keep the door open, they weren't going to give up that post until either there was no one else to head up or they just couldn't hold it any longer. But, how long could they hold it for? Those doors weren't light, and he could only be thankful the security systems hadn't been activated, otherwise there was a good chance it would be attacking them. So many people still had to reach the surface...

With a small sigh, he just settled down to wait, and found himself surprised when secretaries and department delivery people started arriving with food for everyone.

It was only as they were told to move upstairs that he realized two of the black haired Turks, Derin and Ansha (7), had stayed behind for some reason, only returning with Angeal, Sephiroth, Vincent, and Azul. In fact, those were the only two Turks to have come up at the end, leaving him puzzled.

Notes:

(1) These three women are OC's, and describing them here isn't actually practical, besides saying Sirra is half-Wutain. They'll get better introductions later. For Dimensions readers, the only new one should be Leana, who will get a better description at a later point. Leana is also the only OC Turk who wasn't loosely based on a character from another series (though she may accidentally resemble one).

(2) Deepground is noted to have three nominal 'exits', though two of those use the same route. That's the lift, which stops both at the Shinra building lobby and the President's office, and there's an exit leading directly into the Slums which was designed for goods shipments. The lift is closer to most places in Deepground.

(3) Yes, Weiss can WALK on his own, with some difficulty. This was going to be a rush exit, something Weiss wasn't fit to keep up with just then, so Genesis just grabbed him to go—there was no time to waste.

(4) Double Summon is how the thing called "W Summon" in the original main game is actually pronounced, so I figure I'll just call it Double Summon and be done with it. After all, I don't have a space restriction on naming things.

(5) Yes, this means there was someone else in Deepground who had a similar ability to Azul, but not as powerful or as reliable as his. This is still problematic for the people in Deepground just now.

(6) Doriss is another OC Turk, though she got a marginally better description than the other three. Her primary strength is tactics, though she has more spunk than the character she was originally based on, and she has a bad habit of pulling runners on people if she feels threatened in her own home for some reason. Dimensions readers should be very familiar with her.

(7) Ansha was introduced earlier in the story, but Derin is new. Both are good with technology (including hacking), but while Ansha is more of an engineer, Derin is straight tech. In case anyone's wondering, they stayed behind to try to unlock the mechanisms trying to seal the Deepground lift (that was the message Veld was noted to have sent, to get them there to work on the tech side)—and succeeded enough to relieve some of the pressure on the men. Because honestly, a door that large and heavy would have eventually forced itself shut, even with all four of them working against it, unless it stopped trying to force itself shut.