By a Fraction of a Degree

A FFVII Fanfiction work by findthetiger129

Rated T for Violence and Language.

I do not own Final Fantasy VII, or any of the characters, trademarks or likenesses from Final Fantasy VII or its spinoffs. That honor goes to Square-Enix.

A special note of appreciation for HCloudXIII over on Youtube and Dark Angel from the website, Gunshot Romance for their efforts to translate the Before Crisis game text and make the gameplay viewable.

And now, we're back...

Part I: Crossfire

Chapter 9, The Last Two Materia

October 4th [ ν ] – εуλ 0007, 9:15 PM

It wasn't long after the call from Kunsel that Freya figured out the truck was headed towards one of Midgar's train stations, and that she knew a shortcut to get there. They were able to avoid most major distractions on the way over, and soon they spotted their target again. The truck had been parked near the station which looked oddly desolate for this time of night. Although if Zack had to guess, the Ravens had probably scared everyone away. It didn't surprise him that no one had sounded the alarm. Policing in the slums had always been kind of an uncertain thing.

Still clad in the Trooper uniform she'd lifted, Freya tossed the helmet away before creeping up to the truck to look inside. "Elena?" she whispered.

There was no answer so the two of them crept towards the station and the train that was waiting there. No discussion was necessary. Both of them knew that if they attracted the wrong kind of attention, it wasn't just their necks on the line. As they crept into the shadow by the ticket booth, Zack could clearly see several Ravens standing inside some of the train cars.

He turned his attention back to Freya as she motioned that they were going to try and infiltrate the rear car. He nodded to show he understood, but at that moment, he heard the sound of an engine whirring to life. The train was beginning to move. With no time left, the two of them hurried to the last train car. Zack hopped aboard easily and then reached back to grab the Turk's hand and pull her up onto the stoop. Once they were both on, they silently slipped inside the rail car, alert for any indication that they'd been discovered.

The inside of the car was empty, aside from the seats for passengers. Freya looked around warily and then hurried forward, Zack right behind her. About halfway down the car she stopped and knelt, and as Zack halted next to her, he saw something glittering in her hands. "That was that medal Elena was telling us about wasn't it." It wasn't a question.

Freya nodded. "She's been through here, either that, or they left it here to show us that they still have her." She cocked her shotgun as she checked to make sure it had sufficient ammo. "I have a bad feeling about this."

They walked to the door connecting this car to the next, and Freya glanced through the window. "There's about seven of them in there," she reported. "Elena's with them. It looks like… they're waiting for us."

"Then I guess being stealthy won't do us any good anymore," Zack observed.

"No, it won't." Freya opened the door and the two of them walked towards the Ravens, steeling themselves for whatever the AVALANCHE SOLDIERs might be planning.

When Tanjuu left the bar with Shears, he had made a point to keep out of sight of the various urchins in Wall Market, and with good reason. While he'd been with Don Corneo's enforcers after leaving the Wutai syndicate, their parting of ways had not been on the best of terms, in spite of the mafia boss' relationship with the Turks as a whole. With the Turks no longer having Shinra's backing, that protection for him was gone, and he knew very well how Corneo liked to hold grudges. He had no desire to give the Don the opportunity to capitalize on their misfortune.

It had not taken them long to find evidence of the Ravens running around once they had backtracked to the location where Liz, the cold-eyed, female martial artist, had spotted them. They had tracked them for quite a while since then, mostly sticking to the shadows and hoping their hysterical quarry would return to the main group so they could hopefully find Elfe. Alas, it seemed that this particular Raven had not intended to return so soon, and was probably, irony of ironies, looking for them. Tanjuu wondered what their target would have thought if he knew that two of the very people he was supposed to be hunting were watching him, and one of them could very easily shoot him before he could say "Shiva."

"Come on, go back to the others, already!" Shears whispered next to him, his frustration evident.

The two of them were watching from a roof in the shadow of one of the plate supports as the target paused, clearly debating which way to go at a cross roads. Tanjuu shot him a death glare. He knew Shears well enough by now, if indirectly, to know how dedicated the former AVALANCHE leader was to Elfe. As enemies and allies both, it had been apparent the man clung to her with an intense devotion, and so, he could understand Shears' anxiety, but at the same time, it wouldn't do them any good if the Raven heard them.

Shears however, was not intimidated by his gaze and pointedly ignored him. It was about that point that a second Raven appeared near the first and asked him "Any luck?"

The first Raven shook his head, still grinning. "Nope."

"Well, let's head back, the boss just called us in." Yes! This was the break they needed. As the two Ravens departed, their two pursuers slipped down from the roof and crept after them. They followed them along several streets, and Tanjuu noticed they were getting a little bit closer to Sector 7. Almost before the check point dividing the two sectors though, the Ravens turned towards the center of Midgar and began walking in that direction. They followed him a little while longer before he disappeared behind a building.

Cautiously, Tanjuu pulled out his guns and pulled against the wall of the building with Shears beside him, before the two looked around the corner to find the Raven gone. Tanjuu slid along the wall, listening intently for any sounds of an ambush but he heard nothing. It was disquieting, and proved to him that as inhuman as Ravens had become they could still understand the need for silence. They reached the far end of building and saw that they were looking out on an area where the debris had been cleared in front of a couple of houses. It looked deserted.

"Where did they go?" Shears muttered behind him.

"They couldn't have just disappeared," Tanjuu mused. After a moment, he came to a decision. "We'll split up. You take a look around that side and I'll take this one. We'll meet when we get to the opposite side." Shears nodded in agreement and darted behind a pile of rubble as Tanjuu headed in the opposite direction.

It was several minutes later, and the gunman was already halfway around when he heard the sound of an energy blast from the path Shears had taken. He sprinted in that direction as fast as he dared without breaking cover. As he reached the point from which the sound originated, he ducked behind a pile of debris to observe. There was a truck there with several Ravens around it and Shears was lying on the ground, looking rather beaten up. The other person that drew Tanjuu's attention was the man in the white uniform of an AVALANCHE leader, who had unnaturally neat short brown hair and wore a small pair of glasses. He had seen photos of Fuhito before, but he had never actually met the man as his duties had taken him elsewhere.

"Once the summoning is completed, we will no longer have any need for Elfe," the man was saying as he smiled serenely down at his former compatriot. "If we kill her, we can take the materia from her body, and if I offer it to Zirconiaide, it can be whole once more." With that, the man and his followers piled into the truck and drove off, leaving Shears lying on the ground.

Once he was sure the area was clear, Tanjuu raced out to where the man lay and activated the Cure materia he always carried around in the pocket of his blazer for just such emergencies. The first words out of Shears mouth were a rather elaborate curse, followed by "…They got the materia, we need to tell the others."

October 4th [ ν ] – εуλ 0007, 9:30 PM

"Freya? Why did you follow us?" Elena demanded. She was being held by the Raven in the middle, and Zack knew it would be impossible to force their way into getting her back without her ending up hurt too.

The Turk and the SOLDIER took defensive positions as they approached the end of the train car. "Elena isn't connected with the Turks. Let her go!" Freya demanded.

The Raven who was holding the girl gave them a crazy smile. "Gladly, if you give us the support materia in exchange."

The Turk thought about it for a moment as Elena squirmed next to her captor. "Don't listen to them Freya! If it's just them, I can get out of this." She picked that moment to elbow her captor in the ribs and tried to use the surprise to back up and give him a kick to the head, but unfortunately, only the elbow landed. All it seemed to achieve was to aggravate him. His laughter took on a rather hungry tone as he pushed her back into the throng of other Ravens and looked like he might be about to start beating on her, but that was when Freya broke the silence.

"Elena! Stop! I get it!" The Raven turned back to look at her as she spoke and Zack was shocked to hear the next thing she said.

"I'll give you the support materia." Elena's eyes widened in horror, and Zack was pretty sure his were doing the same thing in surprise.

Freya's expression hardened as she reached into her pocket and pulled out the tiny ball. "I said, I'll give you the support materia." She walked a step closer.

"Why?" Elena demanded. "It's important, isn't it?"

"It's okay, Elena," the Turk said calmly before turning her attention back to the Raven. "Bring her to the front, and I'll throw it to you."

The Raven grabbed the girl and put her in front of him as Freya raised her hand with the materia. It glittered under the lights inside the train car. At the same moment, the Raven pushed Elena forward and Freya tossed the crystal orb. Both were caught at the same time, and almost immediately the lead Raven bolted, his prize in hand.

Freya pushed the girl behind her as Zack raced forward to take on the remaining Ravens. They couldn't move around as much in this cramped space, and while that was a disadvantage to him too, it was much more to them due to their numbers. With Freya backing him up, the fight barely lasted a minute.

As the last Raven fell, Zack looked down at the Turk. "So, the plan is to get the materia back, right?"

"Right. We should be able to clear out this train before it gets to its destination." She turned to Elena. "We'll be going now."

"Wait!" Elena called after her. "I'm coming too!"

"It's kind of dangerous," Zack interjected.

"Right, you need to stay here," Freya agreed.

"But it's my fault all this happened."

"I still want you to stay here. Don't worry, we're going to fix this." Freya offered her a cocky grin. "No mission is impossible for the Turks. It's what we do, right?" With that, she gestured for Zack to follow her and they dashed into the next train car.

When they crossed over to the next car, they found four more Ravens waiting for them. As Freya was leading, she kept walking, firing her shot gun twice in succession. Two of the Ravens went down immediately and Zack ran ahead as the huntress took some time to reload. Both the remaining Ravens tried to rush him and there was no space to draw his sword due to the setup of the passenger seats which were situated in sets of two on either side of the car. Instead, Zack grabbed one of the handholds attached to the ceiling of the car and used it to swing himself forward, kicking one of the Ravens to the ground. His first target immediately banged his head against the corner of one of the seats and was out like a light. He landed over top of the man and used his continued momentum to lunge forward at the last Raven, knocking him to the ground and using his elbow to put him out cold.

"Nice work." Freya pulled ahead of him again to take point as they headed towards the next car.

"I couldn't let you have all the fun." The cockiness of the statement was not shared by the tone of Zack's voice. They hurried through the door to find that it was a boxcar and therefore empty of passenger seats. There were also four more Ravens waiting for them.

"Two and two?" Zack quipped.

"We'll see." Once again she walked forward, firing another shell. Two of them went down again and a third one was leaning against the wall as though he was trying to stay up. The fourth had dodged to the side, but had to back away as Zack brought his sword to bear. In here, there was plenty of space and so he cut the man down with extreme prejudice before looking over at the remaining Ravens. None of them were trying to get up. The one in the corner was reaching for something though. Freya saw it too and immediately fired another round. She chambered out the spent ammo and as she walked toward the next car, she started reloading the shotgun again.

Zack eyed the defeated Ravens warily in case they decided to get back up but none of them did.

"Two more cars. He won't have anywhere to run after this," Freya muttered as she pushed open the door to the next train car. Immediately, Zack saw two Ravens on the other side of the standard passenger car they entered, but then he heard the two that had been waiting crouched by the door for their approach. Freya immediately turned right, firing a shotgun blast right into one of their faces as Zack raced in and threw his arms around the neck of the other before the Raven could try and put his own hands around the lady Turk's neck. He winced as the Raven's neck broke before he fell limply to the ground. There were two more Ravens left and they were advancing, with no thought to their own lives.

Freya didn't even flinch as she fired two blasts in their direction. Both of them went down at the gun's report, and the two of them hurried to get to the last car. As Freya threw open the door, she groaned when she saw it empty and then shouted back at Zack as she started running for the opposite end of the car "You take the ladder on this end, I'll get that one! He's on the roof!"

Zack did not need to be told twice. He retreated back outside the car and hopped up the ladder, almost without climbing any of it. The wind whistled through his hair as he peeked over the top of the car and saw that they were hurtling along a train track that ran alongside a second one. The Raven stood at the center of the car, almost like he was waiting for something. Zack pulled himself up just as he saw Freya climbing up the other ladder. They had him!...

That was when the second train flew by from the other direction. The Raven leaped into the air and caught himself on the roof of the other train as it flew back towards the slums. By the time Zack was all the way up the roof and able to attempt the same stunt however, the train was gone.

The Turk and the Ex-SOLDIER met each other where the Raven had jumped. "He got us. They must have researched the train schedules when they planned this," she said angrily.

"Freya!" The two turned and saw a blonde head of hair peeking up from where the ladder was and they made their way carefully over to her. "Where's the materia?" Elena asked as they approached.

Freya sighed. "They got away with it on a train headed back to the slums."

Elena's face fell. "I'm sorry. If I wasn't so clumsy…"

Freya seemed to be thinking for a bit before she spoke again. "Don't worry about it, there's still a way."

"What are you going to do?" Elena asked. Zack wanted the answer to this question too. He was certainly fresh out of ideas.

"This train is headed towards Sector 0 and the station will be right by the Shinra building. We're going to steal a helicopter and find them that way." Both Zack and Elena's eyes bugged out.

"Are you serious?" Elena demanded.

"It does sound crazy," Zack agreed. "Shinra is tearing the city apart looking for us, and from what Kunsel said, they nearly found them at the hospital already. Everyone's going to be on high alert, and you want us to march right in there and steal a helicopter out from under their noses?" It was a distinctly alien feeling to be the voice of reason. It used to be him who came up with all the crazy ideas.

"Well, what do you suggest?" Freya asked.

Zack shrugged. "I'll help. But… wow…"

Elena shook her head. "Forget I said anything. You're a Turk after all."

Freya climbed down so they could get on the platform between the two cars. "It's like I said before…"

Elena rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I know."

They were all standing in between the two cars when Freya's PHS buzzed and after she saw the number she answered it immediately. "Shears, what's wrong?" She walked into the train car where she could hear him talk, and as Zack listened, he saw worry begin to line her face. She hung up shortly after that. "We need to hurry. Fuhito has all the materia."

"What? Wait, does that mean they got Cissnei too?" Zack demanded.

"It seems that way. But at least there's a way to fix this. Apparently if we can get to Elfe quick enough we can make sure the summon doesn't go off. In order to do that, we need to find where Fuhito's going, and we must get that materia back." She looked around the side of the train car and saw the station was coming up. "Elena, you go home, okay?"

The girl nodded. Now was not the time for arguments.

Once that was settled, Freya looked back at Zack. "All right, let's go get that helicopter."

October 4th [ ν ] – εуλ 0007, 10:00 PM

Three guards stood at the entrance to the tunnel that led to the special cell block in the sewers. They weren't standing for long as Tseng, Reno, and Rude each threw them to the ground in perfect synch, knocking all of them unconscious before racing down the corridor. It wouldn't be long before the alarm was sounded, and they only had a short span of time to reach their objective.

As they neared the end of the tunnel, Reno spotted the door they were heading towards. "There it is!"

They halted in front of it and Tseng began to check it for the mechanism that would open it, but with no luck. After a moment, he heard Rude cracking his knuckles behind him. "Tseng, leave it to me."

The Turk director backed away from the door as the martial artist walked toward the side of the door where the hinges were seated, and took stance, angling a punch at a key point on the frame. Almost immediately, the lock snapped and the door swung open revealing an older man with a scarred face in a gray suit.

"Way to go Rude!" Reno applauded.

The three Turks waited for their former superior to exit the cell and Tseng pulled himself to attention. "Veld! Sir!"

"Tseng! Why did you come here!"

"Well isn't that obvious?" Reno spoke for him. "To rescue you of course!"

"You do this and there won't be any going back, you know."

Reno smirked. "We're just doing our jobs."

Rude raised an eyebrow and then supplied "…If you choose to see it that way."

"Now you're just splitting hairs." The former Turk director stood and gave all three of them a stern look.

Tseng chose that moment to push the door open the whole way as he offered his own explanation. "Executing you would be a great loss to the Shinra company. Shinra needs you, and we'll take as long as we need to make them see it. I've got someone preparing a vehicle for our escape as we speak."

The former director could see by this point that there was no utility in arguing. "All right. Let's go."

It did not take Zack and Freya long to get to the secret entrance into Turk headquarters. It turned out to be the elevator through which the Turks had led him out of the building when they'd taken him to Sector 2. He hadn't looked behind him when he'd left, but he discovered it to have been disguised as a blank wall when not in use. They were soon riding up into the belly of the skyscraper until the elevator came to a halt. As they exited, Zack recognized the hallway along which his cell had been located previously.

Zack couldn't help but wonder if the Vice President was still in his cell in here, somewhere. Freya didn't comment on it, so instead, they made their way down the corridor until they were in the main hall. Freya took a moment to duck into an alcove to change back into her suit and check the security cameras around the side entrance. When she confirmed there weren't any guards waiting, she called Tseng to report in before leading them in that direction.

The door was unguarded, but obviously not unwatched because when they exited into the regular portion of this particular level, alarms immediately started blaring.

"Emergency Alert! Intruder Detected! Security moving to Level S."

The two of them hurried down the hall to find an alcove to duck down as Freya cursed. "That means we're going to have to find the right key cards to get up to the helicopter pad."

"How are we going to get those?" Zack asked.

Before Freya could open her mouth to reply, he heard the sound of footsteps and pulled her further into the alcove, hand reaching for the Buster Sword as a trooper headed in their direction. As they waited with baited breath, the trooper stopped in front of the door they'd just exited. He looked around, and after a moment reported "No problems sighted in this sector." He turned around to leave, but just then, Freya bolted out of the alcove and deftly knocked the man out with the butt of her shotgun. After frisking the man, she came out with a keycard labeled with a bold letter "A."

"I guess we'll just have to fight our way through until we find them," she finally answered his question. "We need to get going. They've probably already let the guard monsters out and they'll be on high alert." The two of them sprinted down the hallway until they reached a door and Freya tried the keycard on it. It worked, but when they looked inside, Zack saw a monster which he really couldn't identify. If he didn't know better, he'd have thought it was one of Hojo's nastier experiments. It was bipedal with a huge claw on one side and was contorted and misshapen. He wasn't sure where the eyes were on the shaggy head of blue fur that crowned the thing, but they probably weren't where they were supposed to be.

"Was that what you meant?" he asked.

Freya didn't bother answering him but aimed her shotgun at the thing, firing off a shot before being forced to roll away from the door as the monster snarled and swiped its claw at her. Zack went for his sword and raced to the right, before catapulting himself off the wall and slicing down hard on the monster, cutting it down before it could move again.

"Are you okay?" he asked as the Turk stood up and resumed heading towards the stairs.

"Yeah," she answered. They didn't bother exchanging further conversation. They needed to hurry while they still had momentum.

They got through the next couple of floors, one of which happened to house the executive conference room, rather quickly. This was helped along considerably by the fact that it was now after regular business hours so most of Shinra's employees had left. It wasn't long before Freya had acquired the passkeys and soon they were standing at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the helipad.

They were about halfway up when Zack heard the sounds of movement at the top and drew his sword again. Not wanting to give whatever was up there the chance to get the drop on them, he turned around so that he could see the upper landing clearly. There were three more of those guard monsters Freya had mentioned, and it was a good thing he'd looked when he did, because one of them looked like it was about to try and jump over the side at them. He pushed Freya out of the way as the deformed monstrosity fell to the steps, and rushed forward, impaling his sword straight through the beast before it could get its balance. It let out a guttural snarl as it fell down the stairs, and he felt its claw catch his arm, trying to take him with it. He winced as the claw sliced through his flesh but pulled back and managed to avoid getting dragged by taking hold of a guard rail with his free hand.

There was no way the noise didn't attract the attention of the other two monsters however, and he heard Freya's shotgun going off as she aimed up the stairs at them. Neither of them went down. Instead, they roared angrily. Zack raced ahead of the Turk, as the two monsters charged down the stairs, hoping he could stop both of them on the corner landing before this got any more dangerous. He shot a Firaga at them as they drew closer and they both charged right into the flames. They roared in pain and Zack leapt up, grabbing a handhold on a nearby pipe to avoid being crushed as they slammed into the wall he been standing in front of previously.

He swung himself away from the monsters, lifting the Buster Sword out of the way so he could land on his feet just behind them before bringing it around in a decapitating swing. One of the monsters went down, one head shorter, but the other had already recovered and though it hadn't spotted him again, it had spotted Freya standing a few steps down. Zack ducked when he saw her raise her shotgun one final time and fire directly into the advancing monster's torso. The gun went off and she slid to the side as the last monster keeled over and slid down the steps in a pool of its own blood.

She took a moment to catch her breath before the two of them ran the rest of the way up the stairs to the door leading out to the helipad. It wasn't until they were outside in the night air that Zack felt the dribble of blood running down his arm where the first monster had nicked him. He went for his Cure materia as Freya looked around at the helicopter choices.

It looked like she was about to go for one of the smaller B-1 Alphas but then Zack decided to inject his opinion. "It might be better to get that one," he said, pointing to a military transport helicopter on the pad to their left.

"Why?" Freya asked.

Zack had finished with the Cure by now and stowed it away. "After all this is over, we're going to need to get out of the city pretty fast too, and it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to have a vehicle that can carry everyone, right?"

Freya took a moment to consider this, and then changed course. "Good thinking." The two of them boarded the transport helicopter and it wasn't long before they were airborne.

October 4th [ ν ] – εуλ 0007, 11:15 PM

It took a little bit of searching the roads before Freya managed to find the truck they were looking for. It was headed along one of the suspended highways leading out of Midgar. However, Zack could see that the road would end very soon. Apparently it was a location at which the Shinra Transit Authority had decided to stop building (most likely due to budget cuts) as the suspended road rose up slightly above its normal level and then just stopped. There were still a couple of miles left before it got there.

Zack tapped the mic on the headset to get Freya's attention as he stood up and headed out of the cockpit. "Get it in close. I'll jump it."

There was silence on the other line, then "It's been a while since you've done one of those. You sure you're up to it?"

"I was a SOLDIER 1st, I think I can handle it."

"All right, be careful Zack." He felt the helicopter slow a bit as it pulled level with the truck and then secured the headset somewhere it wouldn't fall out before throwing the door open and feeling the wind blow past him. Gaia, he'd missed this feeling. He felt a grin spread across his face as he prepared to jump. If he angled it right, he should be able to land on the cab and then it would be a simple matter of taking out the driver. Finally he released the handgrip and allowed himself to tumble out of the chopper. He landed perfectly, though he had to grab the tarp on the truck bed to keep from getting knocked off as the driver swerved. Less than a mile up ahead, Zack could see several more Ravens waiting, even as Freya had pulled away and started using the helicopter's machine gun to shoot some of them down. Just past that, he saw four figures, one prone on the ground, two Ravens, and the other in a white AVALANCHE uniform.

The truck pulled to a halt under him and the Raven who'd been driving it started to sprint. Zack wasn't about to tolerate that and he raised his sword as he leapt after the AVALANCHE SOLDIER. The Raven was cleaved by the Buster Sword, but just before it connected, he pulled Freya's materia out and tossed it in the direction of the other Ravens. One of the men who hadn't been hit by Freya's machinegun fire caught the orb and ran in the direction of the man in white as another ran up to keep him busy. Zack heard the sound of the helicopter die as Freya landed it a ways behind him. He cut down the man in front of him, and sprinted after the other Raven, hoping he could catch him before he got to the other guy who he guessed had to be Fuhito.

Even as he drew near, the Raven pulled level with the bespectacled AVALANCHE leader and handed him the last materia. It looked like Fuhito was ordering the remaining Ravens to take him out as the three of them walked out to meet his charge. He could already see him walking over to the prone form which he now recognized to be that of a woman, even as he impaled one of the Ravens with the Buster Sword. He threw out a Firaga at one of the other Ravens but he rolled to evade it as Zack pulled his sword free to continue the assault.

He could hear Fuhito saying something at the edge of his awareness, and he knew he had to hurry before the summoning got off but the Ravens were determined to hold him back. He swung again, and the Raven he was aiming for dodged. At that point, he had to step to the side to avoid a stunning blow from the other one. He felt the air chill as a Blizzara went off over the head of the Raven that had just attacked him. That was when he caught a glimpse of Freya, running to join him.

He swung at the other Raven a final time and steel met flesh before he shot a Thundara at the one Freya had just iced. But even as the two of them went down, his gaze was drawn to a bright flash of light from where the woman had been lying. As Freya caught up with him, they both looked on in horror as electricity sparked around the woman's form and she floated up into the air.

"And that's all the conditions met," Fuhito said calmly. "How blindingly beautiful. How graceful in its solemnity, how magnificent in its gravity." Even as he spoke the man's face was contorting into a smirk that made Zack's skin crawl. It was the same kind of smile Hojo wore when he was excited. "The light that shines the utter and profound truth upon all in the universe!"

"Gaia, it's starting…" he heard Freya say beside him.

"And so ends this woman's usefulness." The electricity died and the woman plopped unceremoniously back down on the asphalt. He heard her groan in pain but she was obviously too ill to move. "I shall liberate the materia from her body." Zack saw Fuhito pull out a knife and raced forward to stop him before he could go for the girl's arm, knocking it away as Freya dived to drag Elfe away from her attacker. The support materia scattered across the highway, glittering as they were knocked helter-skelter in her passing. The remains of Fuhito's blade flew through the air when the knife shattered on the Buster and Zack moved to punch him down, but the man ducked, trying to get back to Elfe.

"Give her back!" he commanded.

"As if!" Zack returned, swinging at him to keep him away from Freya and the girl.

"If Zirconiaide becomes complete, that'll be the end of everything!" Freya exclaimed.

Fuhito ignored her and made to get past Zack again. But that was when something else happened. Out of the corners of his vision, Zack became aware that the scattered support materia were beginning to shine brighter than before. As he ducked to the side to avoid some kind of energy blast the AVALANCHE leader had fired at him, he thought he heard the sound of someone whimpering in pain and then something whooshed past them. It was then that he realized what had happened, though he didn't know how. It seemed that the support materia had called the summon materia out of Elfe's body and as the three of them looked on in surprise, the five materia coalesced into one in a blaze of violet light before landing squarely in Fuhito's hands. The AVALANCHE leader's face lit up eerily in the orb's reflected glow. "This materia… I must take it to Zirconiaide. This is the most important of duties bestowed upon me by the planet. I shall offer everything for the planet's restoration." He grabbed the materia out of the air and as Zack and Freya watched in shock and surprise, he raced towards the end of the highway. What looked like some kind of dimensional portal had opened just past where the road ended, and Fuhito leapt through it.

Zack was about to follow him in when he heard the sound of footsteps. Looking behind him, he could now see that several people had gathered near the helicopter and were approaching, all in dark suits. As the other Turks approached, he saw that Cissnei, Mao, Tanjuu, Rod, and Lou were among them, and as he glanced back, he saw Shears cradling Elfe in his arms. Each of the Turks nodded to Zack and then looked to Freya. She had just finished reporting to Tseng, and then, without a word, all of them hurried resolutely towards the portal. They had to stop this now; otherwise it really would be the end of everything.