After Cloud was cleaned up and dressed, they called Kunsel in, having found a second lab table and put them both down with a sheet over them. The sight made his skin crawl, but it was clean and the lab tech needed to look at them.

It was clear the man was extremely nervous. Knowing your life literally depended on your performance tended to do that.

"So, uh, they're both highly sedated right now," he said, rubbing his hands together. "The uh… SOLDIER will probably wake up within a half hour unless you administer more, he's… very hard to keep down."

"That's Zack for you," Kythe said. "What about Cloud?"

"The trooper?" He swallowed at the look he was given. "Right. Uh he did not take very well to this. He's got a fairly mild case of mako poisoning, but I mean, that still needs treatment. Proper treatment. He should come out of it just fine with that, I mean, he had a baseline and everything; pre-exposure makes you more sensitive to later-life mako exposure, but if you survive the first twelve hours, it usually means you'll come out of anything mild."

"They passed him up for SOLDIER," Kunsel remembered. "Because of the mako sensitivity?"

"Yeah, probably," he admitted. "It's… I guess you could either say he doesn't take well to it or he takes too well to it? He'd probably accept enhancement like a sponge, physically. It's just the psychological part you have to worry about. But I mean, a good doctor team and you should be fine!"

"We've got those in Midgar," Veld pointed out mildly.

"Because walking right back into the monster's den is the smart thing to do," Kythe drawled.

"We'll see," Kunsel said. "What can we do for them now, so we can move? We can't stay here."

"Well, I mean, I wouldn't -"

"They can be moved." The red-eyed man the others had found in the coffin had introduced himself as 'Vincent' and to judge from his mako glow he knew a thing or two about Hojo's special treatment. He blinked at the man's sputtering, inclining his head. "Mako exposure will not worsen at any faster rate in a transport than laying out on a table. It's entirely unaffected by altitude. It is, however, affected by hydration so running an IV on the way is advisable. I assume you're capable?"

"Excuse me, but I don't believe you're the medical professional here," he said, bristling.

"Is he wrong?" Kunsel asked.

"…not entirely, but you're going to want painkillers as well as hydration," the tech said. "And they're still vulnerable. It would have been smarter to leave them in the tanks and wait for a proper medical crew to come retrieve them."

"Yeah, see, ShinRa medical did this," Kunsel said, and something in his tone took the airs right back out of the technician. "So excuse me if I'd rather listen to a stranger the Turks seem to like instead of someone who thought doing this to them in the first place was even remotely okay."

A ghost of a smile flicked over Vincent's lips before the lower half of his face disappeared in the collar of his mantle. Beside him, Veld smiled faintly. "We'll get the files so we know what's happened. One thing I can say about Hojo, he kept meticulous files on everything."

"I'll take the hard drives," Cissnei said.

"Good idea. Vincent and I can collect the rest of his files." He glanced at Vincent. "Including the older projects."

Vincent arched a brow, the lift of his brows decidedly amused at something. "Very well."

"And… we'll stay put?" Kythe said.

"No need to move them until we're ready." Veld looked at the tech. "Get your supplies."

"Do we have room to lay them both down and run two IVs in the back of the transport?" Cissnei asked. "I know we all want out of here as quickly as possible, but we could call someone from the Rakheim outpost and take two vehicles -"

"We're not splitting up," Kunsel said immediately.

"It'll be a tight fit, but we can manage in the transport," Veld said. "It's fine."

"I'll go with the tech," one of the SOLDIERs volunteered.

"You do that." Veld nodded. "Vincent?"

Vincent nodded and turned to head further into the library. "They kept things back here. Knowing Hojo, that hasn't changed."

Veld nodded, unable to argue that. Creativity had never been Hojo's forte.

They started looking through the files in silence, sifting through things Veld would probably send people back for later but didn't want to bother with hauling now.

After a bit, Veld felt eyes on him and looked up to meet Vincent's gaze. He arched a brow, prompting.

Vincent watched him a moment longer, letting the silence stretch. "They don't trust you."

"They don't trust ShinRa," Veld said. "And as the Director of the Turks, common opinion is I have 'property of ShinRa' tattooed on my ass."

Vincent snorted. "I'd have paid good money to hear you tell Alex that."

"Please, I have a sense of self preservation," Veld said.

"Sometimes," Vincent said.

"You'd be surprised, these days," Veld said. "I've got a lot more people counting on me now… can't afford to be too reckless."

Vincent hummed thoughtfully, watching him still. "So they're against ShinRa."

"It's complicated," Veld said. "They're from the SOLDIER program that came out of Project J. Enhanced military, pretty much swore themselves to ShinRa. But they've been abused one too many times, and this is the last straw. Something's got to give, or they're leaving, at best."

He nodded. "What are you going to do?"

That was the question, wasn't it? He made a joke out of property of ShinRa, but he'd been marching to their tune for a long time. He'd crossed a lot of lines for them, compromised himself again and again until he was so far down a bloody rabbit hole that he could barely recognize himself some days.

Was there a line left he wouldn't cross? Or maybe that was the wrong question. Was it taken out of his hands entirely by SOLDIER now? He knew he wouldn't pit his department against theirs, even if ordered. There was no winning that fight. Even the army wouldn't win that fight, and they had bigger numbers.

"I think," he said quietly, "I'm going to have to work with them, somehow."

"They're too powerful to subdue, aren't they?" Vincent said. "Hojo's little power fantasy."

Veld snorted. "You're not wrong."

Vincent shook his head. "Perhaps you shouldn't let them stew, then. Young men with too much time to think has never done us any good."

Veld arched a brow. "You say that like you weren't the champion brooder out of the two of us."

"You were a good student," Vincent said, and even if he was teasing the words hit hard. From the way he averted his eyes, he'd noticed.

"I tried," Veld said softly. Leather creaked around his fists, and he was painfully aware of the weight of his prosthetic. The weight of the past.

"I'm sure you did well," Vincent said, just as soft. "You were always a perfectionist."

Veld nodded, and set his papers down. "You're a faster reader than I am anyway. Go ahead and keep sorting while I check in with Kunsel. See just what those boys are thinking."

"Good plan," Vincent said. "Those two will need medical care. You may have some leverage."

"For a little while," Veld agreed.

Kunsel was with the other SOLDIER he'd chosen as a sort of SIC for this, the pair bracketing the two lab tables and talking quietly. Enhanced hearing doubtlessly picked up his footsteps - he was making no attempts to hide them - and they both turned to look at him. They weren't openly hostile, at least.

"Found the files?" Kunsel asked.

"Vincent's finishing with that," Veld said. "I thought we should talk about where we're taking things from here."

"You want us to go back to ShinRa," Kunsel said.

"Physically. Long enough to have someone who knows about treating SOLDIERs take a good look at Zack, and a mako exposure expert get a look at Cloud," Veld agreed. "Then, if you want to leave…"

"They're not going to just let us walk out without a fight, and they'll have Zack as leverage," Kunsel pointed out immediately.

"They could try," Veld agreed easily. "I'm not stupid enough to think they could stop all of you."

"They could kill him before we could do anything. He's vulnerable," Kunsel said. "And we don't know what Hojo did to him. He could wake up and be fine, or he could be completely wrecked. We don't know that. And I'm not betting his safety on the hope that they'll be sensible."

"Fair enough." Veld sighed. "There's going to be consequences to all this. A director is dead."

"Not that that's our fault, but - and I'm just putting it out there - maybe we shouldn't stop there," Kunsel said flatly. His eyes were still much brighter than Veld was comfortable with, SOLDIER warning lights.

"I am professionally obligated to tell you to watch your mouth," Veld said.

"I am personally obligated to tell you I left my give-a-damn at the door," Kunsel retorted.

"Yeah, not gonna lie, most of us? Pretty done caring what ShinRa thinks," Kythe said. "Even the big bad Turks."

Veld opened his mouth and froze, hearing Vincent clear his throat somewhere behind him. It was going to take a little bit to get used to that deeper register instead of his familiar tenor, but it was still… him, somehow. "Yes, Valentine?"

"At the risk of indelicacy, do you want Felicia's files as well?" Vincent asked.

Veld's stomach bottomed out. "What?"