Scars of the Past

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


And you can easily gamble your life away - Second after second and day by day - You can play the game or you can walk away - It's a new turn on a blue day - And a cool deal of life for me - And it's all good - I know that the spades are the swords of a soldier - I know that the clubs are weapons of war - I know that diamonds mean money for this art - But that's not the shape of my heart (Sugababes - Shape)

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Chapter 12 - A Board Meeting

In the Shinra Board Room, back in Midgar. Rufus was stood at the head of the table, Reeve stood to one side and Heidegger was sat down in one of the chairs. The President winked at Reeve, who then fiddled about with something in his coat for a few minutes. He stopped, straighten out his jacket, then Rufus started the meeting.

"Now then...... We're faced with two issues." He held one finger up "One. Destroy Meteor." He held another finger up. " Two. Remove the barrier around North Cave and defeat Sephiroth." He brought his hand down and looked at the two people. "Any ideas?" Heidegger stood up.

"Gya haah hah hah! We already solved the first problem! Meteor will soon be smashed to bits! The plan has already been put in motion. Namely, to collect Huge Materia from each region." Rufus stared at the Shinra Executive for a few moments.

"Well......" He pondered. A blonde woman appeared from behind Rufus, stopping next to him.

"Huge Materia is a high density special type of materia made through a special compression process in Mako reactors." Scarlet said. Rufus nodded and she continued. "The energy extracted from it is three hundred and thirty times the strength of normal materia. Ha, ha, ha! How about that!?" She crossed her arms while turning to the other two men in the board room. "We will gather all the Huge Materia together and ram it into Meteor." She turned to look back at the President. "That will cause a huge explosion!! Reducing Meteor literally to bits." Rufus stared at her again.

"You're going to ram into Meteor? Do you think we have the technology to do it?" He asked, cautiously.

"Don't worry about that! More importantly, we've got to collect Huge Materia from each area." Heidegger stood up after Scarlet had finished talking.

"We've already collected materia from Nibelheim. All that's left is "Corel" and "Fort Condor". I've already dispatched troops to Corel. Ghaa haah hah hah!" Rufus looked to Reeve, who then fiddled about in his jacket again.

"So, why exactly are we telling Avalanche what we are doing?" Scarlet asked, after the black haired man finished switching off the transmitter for Cait.

"I want to see if they'll do anything about it." Rufus said, relaxing into a chair nearby.

"What if they take the huge materia?" She questioned him.

"Makes it easier for us. You're planning to use the Rocket from Rocket Town to destroy the meteor right?" Scarlet nodded. "Who's Rocket is that?" The blonde stared at him.

"Cid's" She mumbled.

"Exactly. They'll try and stop the launch of the rocket anyway. Hopefully, they'll have all the huge materia on them, as well as the materia we have from Nibelheim, which will be planted in the rocket. If we launch the thing with them inside, we get rid of two problems at once." Scarlet looked at Heidegger and they both grinned.

"I knew there was a reason you were President." Rufus smirked.

"Reeve, are Avalanche going to Coral?" The Shinra Executive nodded. "Also solves another problem, we know where they are going too." He smirked. "Avalanche thinks, that Cait is spying on us for them, when he's actually still spying for Shinra." He started laughing. "God I love gullible people." He took out a cigarette and lit it. "Where's that stupid game? I need to show that kid I can do it." Reeve smiled.

"It was in the Turks office. Last time I checked, Callum had roped Rude into playing it. He wasn't succeeding at it either." Rufus jumped up.

"Excuse me, I have a game to play." He walked off out of the room. Scarlet followed.

"This is something I've got to see." She mumbled. Reeve strolled off after them both.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Rude was still playing Frazzle, and still losing. Reno was sat nearby, laughing everytime Rude touched the metal. Callum and Marlene had gotten bored and had took to playing on Elena's computer, Elena sat nearby watching them.

"Reno, don't you have a underwater reactor to go to?" The blonde Turk asked. Reno waved her off.

"I'll go in a bit." She sighed. There was a knock at the door. All three Turks looked at it puzzled. No one ever knocked on their door, they always just walked straight in. Reno jumped up and opened it. On the other side was Rufus, grinning like a mad man.

"Errr...... Hello?" The red haired Turk asked, uncertainly.

"Have you still got that game?" It was Reno's turn to grin now.

"Fancy another go do you?" He let the blonde President past him.

"Damn right. I'm not going to let a three year old beat me."

"We'll see Ruffie." Rufus stared at him.

"Don't you have an underwater reactor to go to?"

"Ok I'm going. God, it's like none of you want me here." No one answered, so Reno left the room, mumbling every swear word ever written, some in different languages. He bumped into Scarlet and Reeve on the way out.

"Where are you going?" Reeve asked the red head.

"Junon, to the world famous, stupid, crappy, underwater, mako sucking, thing." He stormed past them both. The two Shinra Executives looked at each other.

"He seemed pissed off." The black haired man said after a few seconds.

"Understatement of the year, Reeve." Scarlet poked her head round the office door. "Why's Reno so pissed off?" Rufus grinned.

"The mission I sent him on involves dragging about twenty guards with him."

"Ah......... What is this bloody game everyone keeps going on about?" Callum looked up.

"What Frazzle? Want a game?" Scarlet looked at Rufus, who was now glaring at her.

"Sure, why not." The blonde woman sat down and took the plastic handle in her hand. She followed the metal shape around, making sure not the touch the metal. She started grinning, when she was over half way round without touching it. Rufus' mouth stared to drop open, and Elena was grinning as well. She got to the end of the shape and pulled the metal part of the handle away from the maze. "Well would you look at that......."

"Shut up. Just shut up, Scarlet." The President sat sulking on the office floor. Elena was giggling.

"Maybe all men can't do this game." Scarlet started giggling with her. Rude was even glaring at the two blondes now. Reeve looked as though he was concentrating. He interrupted the laughing.

"Rufus?" The blonde looked at him. "Avalanche are in Mideel now. Seems they've found Cloud again. They've also managed to get both huge materia from Coral and Fort Condor." Rufus frowned.

"Damn that was quick." He thought to himself for a moment, then spoke up. "Scarlet, go and find fat ass and get going to Rocket Town. Rude can go with you." She nodded and left the room, Rude following her. "This idea better work........" Rufus mumbled to himself.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

In Junon, Reno sat sulking at the underwater dock. He hated working with guards. They just always seemed to get in the way. Maybe that was why Rufus sent so many with him. Hell, he could probably do this job on his own. If he didn't want to do any of the work at all, five guards would be more than enough. He sighed. Elena has phoned him half an hour ago, telling him that Avalanche would probably be coming his way in the next two hours. He smirked, maybe he could have some fun after all. He took out a cigarette from his top pocket, lit it and let it dangle from his lips. He watched as the guards frantically run about trying to make sure the huge materia went on the submarine. One of them ran up to him.

"Sir! The Huge Materia is ready to be transported onto the submarine, Sir." Reno flicked the cigarette butt onto the floor and stood on it.

"Get on with it then!" He snapped. How he enjoyed making the guards nervous.

"Y....yes Sir!" The man ran off. Reno strolled over to the crane and stood there, waiting for it to be transported. He lit up another cigarette as he watched the crane go over his head, bringing a huge lump of glowing rock with it. 'So that's huge materia.' he stared at the materia a little longer. He heard someone behind him. Thinking it was a guard, he spoke up.

"What are you doing? Help load." No one answered, so he turned. "Cloud!?"

"You know I don't work for cheap!" The pilot said, from over Cloud's shoulder. 'Cocky bastard.'

"Looks like we barely made it." The brunette whispered.

"Either give it to us or else. ...which is it gonna be?" Reno stared at Cloud, then to Carry Armor out of the corner of his eye. He smirked.

"I can't let you take the materia, so it looks like it's gonna be a fight. Just you and me." The red haired Turk took out his nightstick. The blonde unsheathed his sword.

"Bring it on!"

Cloud started running at Reno, his sword held back, ready to strike. As the blonde swung the sword towards the red head, Reno jumped out the way and stood his leg out. Cloud fell over the leg, but tumbled gracefully and stood back up again in a split second. The blonde charged again. The Turk jabbed Cloud with his nightstick as soon as he was close enough. The blonde jerked a bit at the sudden burst of electricity that went through him. Reno smirked, taking the stick away and jumping back a little bit. Cloud straighten himself up and chanted a spell. The red head readied himself for the attack, but smirked when he found out it was a bolt spell. Cloud looked shocked for a split second, before he kicked himself for not realising sooner. Since Reno used lighting attacks, a bolt spell would do him no harm. The Turk ran towards Cloud, chanting something as he was running. He held his nightstick out as a ball of lighting shot out the end. The blonde dodged it barely. Reno stopped and chanted the spell again. Cloud didn't dodge this time. The ball of energy hit him and he went sprawling across the floor. The blonde got up, a bit ruffled, but fairly ok. The Turk cursed. Cloud charged again, sword up in the air. Reno smirked. He edged closer to the dock edge. Just as he was right at the edge he stopped, waited for Cloud to get close enough, then jumped out the way. The blonde didn't have time to stop, so went flying off the edge of the dock, into the water below. Reno cracked up laughing as Cloud came to the surface.

"Having a nice swim, chocobo head?" Cloud glare at him and dragged himself out the water. The blonde shook himself then went to stand with his other two comrades.

"Are you going to give us the huge materia or not?" Cloud asked, rather pissed off. Reno flicked a strand of hair out of his face.

"Unfortunately, I don't have anymore time to deal with you." He signalled to the robot off to the side of him. It strode around for a bit then stopped just in front of the group. "My priority is the Huge Materia!" With that he took off out the reactor. There was no damn way he was going in one of Shinra's thirty year old submarines, he'd take the helicopter back to Midgar. He smirked. He really had enjoyed that little fight.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------