While Veld coordinated with seemingly every organizational head available, Vincent stood guard with Aerith and Cloud, waiting for the moment that the Tsviets would be either killed or put into a condition where they would be able to sweep in and capture them. No one was really sure what was going to happen, so much as they had hopes they were clinging to.

Vincent knew the SOLDIERs wanted to 'save' the Tsviets, though if the Tsviets themselves would thank them for it was questionable. He also knew - and had been assured by Veld - that if it came to it, they would kill them instead. They were young, but well-seasoned by the action they had seen, most of them on the warfront. Even Zack had seen more of this sort of combat than Vincent himself had in his ten years as a Turk. They were the best choices not only for physical strength, but experience. Whatever 'winning' meant, it would only be achieved through these young men.

Drew was the first to come through with a win against Azul, who he had begun combat with before the others had even tracked theirs down as far as Vincent could tell from the rise and fall of bright energies.

By the time they arrived in Sector 7's train graveyard, Drew was sitting painfully propped against a train car, an arm hugging his ribs. Blue eyes were at once overly bright and shadowed by pain, a significant thing for someone with as much tolerance as a SOLDIER would have developed at this point.

He didn't argue Aerith hurrying to him first while Vincent stood guard over Azul's unconscious body. "Hey."

"Oh, you poor thing… what's wrong?" she asked, hands fluttering uncertainly as she knelt beside him.

"Good question. Not a good enough hand with a Sense to tell you right now," he admitted, but the careful, stilted way he was breathing spoke volumes.

"Here, let me see," Cloud said, kneeling on Drew's other side as his materia bracer lit up, Sense activated. He'd used Sense so many times to help learn to assess threats, especially as he was constantly being pitted against things that he was unfamiliar with and still expected to handle.

Well, back when he'd been a trooper. A lot had changed since then, but not the need to know what was going on while he was in over his head.

He almost wished he hadn't looked because the damages Drew had taken… he swallowed hard, trying to process it all. "How are you upright?"

Drew smiled, tinged with pain and genuine amusement. "Practice."

"Let me see," Aerith said, eyes going unfocused as she accessed their psychic soulbond to get a different angle of assessment on Drew. She sucked in a breath, refocusing on Drew with a look of morbid fascination. "…you're healing yourself."

"…what?" He blinked at her in confusion.

"I've seen what it looks like, when someone's been injured and then used a potion or a Restore," Aerith said. "You've got injuries in process of healing. Right now. Fast enough I can see it happening."

"Is that what that is?" Cloud asked, eyes squinting as if he could literally see it.

"…SOLDIERs don't heal that fast," Drew said, baffled. "Even Sephiroth didn't heal that fast and he was insanely enhanced. Way more than I am."

"SOLDIERs may not," Aerith agreed quietly, expression thoughtful. "But you're not just a SOLDIER now, are you?"

Drew froze, processing that. "SOLDIERs don't. WEAPONs do?"

"Apparently," she agreed. "And from the markers of how much has been healed already that's the only reason you're alive."

That was a lot to take, even for a man used to cheating death. To hear that it was literally a miracle he was alive, that only the touch of the Goddess herself had saved him. "…oh."

"That bodes well for the others," Cloud pointed out. "Can you help accelerate any of his healing? So he can move?"

"I can do that," Aerith agreed. "Just breathe slowly, and let me work, Drew."

"Sure thing." He smiled tightly, and tried not to focus on the way the pins-and-needles sensation of healing increased tenfold when you were dealing with this level of injury. It took everything he had not to squirm on the spot, or hyperventilate from the intensity of the feeling. Adrenaline spent, he had nothing to numb it. And with the battle over, so were the distractions from just how bad it really was.

He could have died. Should have died. Would have, even if he'd been an ordinary SOLDIER.

This was not the first time he'd cheated death, probably wouldn't be the last - might not even be the last today. But the fact that he didn't make it out under his own power didn't sit right.

"I think that's all I can do to push it along without doing too much, too fast," Aerith said, cutting through his grim musings.

"Feels better," he realized, drawing an even breath. It ached, but that was so much better than the stabbing pains he'd been having even trying little breaths. "Thanks."

"Mmhm. Now, I'm going to see about purifying and healing Azul… it looks like you did a number on him." Aerith frowned pensively. "I'll do what I can, and he'll be brought back and kept in confinement under sedation until we can sort things out."

"Sounds good," Drew said. "You've got a transport somewhere?"

"We do, yes." She sighed. "It's going to be a trick getting Azul to it, but we'll figure it out."

"Yeah you're not going to fit that guy on a stretcher," Drew agreed. "Give me another five minutes and I might be able to help Vincent carry him."

"We'll see," was all she would commit to, going back to tend Azul.

Cloud came up behind her, helping assess with a Sense. "Must have been one hell of a fight, as banged up as you both are… it's a wonder you both came out alive."

"Alive, and likely to recover," Aerith agreed, shaking her head, gaze unfocused as her attention turned inward to her magic as she healed him. "That's incredible."

Drew nodded, wrinkling his nose at the familiar, oily black smoke beginning to billow off of Azul as she purified him of apparently an intense concentration of Jenova cells. "He's going to be even weaker than Genesis when you're done, with all that gone."

"Good," Cloud muttered. "Less trouble for us."

"But still above the unenhanced," Vincent predicted, finally speaking up. "He remains a threat and will be treated as such. Once he's had the chip removed, and he's had everything explained and time to process it, we can reassess. But for now…"

"For now, we'd be fools not to take him seriously, yeah," Drew agreed. "His cannon's still over there where he dropped it, so odds are good, at least, that he can't do the weapon-summoning thing Genesis and Sephiroth did. One plus."

"Hey, we'll take it," Cloud said, nodding. "We'll take it back too, though."

"So long as he doesn't get his hands on it, fine," Drew agreed.

"Mmmh. How's the healing going, Aerith?" Cloud asked.

"I'm almost done with what I can safely do," she said. "We can go get Benji next."

"Yeah? Heard he took out Rosso," Drew said. That was, ominously, all he'd heard but at least it had been from Benji himself. And the same healing from them being WEAPONs ought to apply to him. So while he'd probably had a hell of a time, he should be fine.

At least that was what Drew was choosing to believe until he had proof otherwise.

Aerith finished up with Azul, and Drew proceeded to have the brain-bending experience of watching Vincent Valentine, an undeniably, unbelievably strong man who was still built rail thin for how tall he was and those shoulders, pick Azul up with little more than a huff. "I… could help?"

"He is a little awkward to carry," Vincent admitted. Not that he apparently needed help with Azul's weight, but there was a lot of him. Easily something like nine feet, to judge by the difference between him and Vincent, and three feet made a huge difference.

"'A little,'" Drew muttered, shaking his head and helping Vincent rearrange him to carry him back to the transport. He was completely limp, which made it harder yet was simultaneously reassuring. He was out, and for now, was not a threat.

Then it was time to go to Benji, and there were people there. People who had, at least, recognized that he had saved an untold number of them by drawing Rosso's fire and taking her out. He'd already had some minimal medical treatment and was nursing a bottle of water when they were led to him.

Wonder of wonders, he'd talked them out of killing Rosso outright somehow.

"I'm just that good," Benji informed him, wincing when Aerith helped accelerate his healing the rest of the way. "You are gonna need an ether before we get to Nik, y'know."

"I know," she agreed. "But I'm fine to do this, so hold still and let me."

"Yes'm." He chuckled, and honestly it was a relief to hear. The smile he gave Drew was softer, knowing. "I'm alright, you big worry wart. You're the one with half your rib cage resetting itself as we speak. And at least one of your knees, from how you're moving."

"You have blood on your teeth, your shirt is shredded, and I can see where some sort of cut went across both your palms, do not start," Drew said.

Benji grinned and licked the blood away. "My bad."

"My bad," Drew mimicked. "I'd hit you upside the head but it might do more damage."

"Actually, that's one place he's fine," Aerith said. "…that is not an excuse to hit him, however."

"We'll save it for later," Drew said.

"You love me," Benji reminded him cheekily.

"Maybe. Sometimes. When you're not giving me a heart attack," Drew said.

"Question," Cloud interrupted their banter. "Nikolas is done too, right? I thought I heard him call in about Shelke."

"He is," Aerith agreed. "He's our next stop."

"Right… about that." Cloud frowned. "That's Sector Four."

"Right?"

"We have to cross through Sector 5 to get there," Cloud said. "…Zack hasn't even found Weiss yet."

There was a long moment of silence.

"…that might be a problem."