Disclaimer: Me no own.

A/N: Thanks to Reno Spiegel for the words of encouragement. Yay! That means that at least one person has read this.

Chapter 2: One Long Night

Reno stood, attack rod extended, in front of the old Shinra building with an uncharacteristically angry scowl painted across his face, resembling a guard ready to attack. "What the fuck are you doing here?"

Cloud simply folded his arms, waiting for Reno to calm down. He wasn't about to be frightened by the Turk when he had almost all of AVALANCHE backing him up, all except Vincent, Cid and, of course, Reeve. "Elena told us to come."

"She did what?!?" Reno stomped over to Elena, who was standing motionless a few feet behind him. Grabbing tightly on to her arm, he began his questions. "Just what in the hell are you trying to do here, 'Lena? Do you think just because that silver-hared freak is gone, we can become friends with these terrorists? Do you not think the Turks can handle this?" Seemingly, he wasn't all that interested in her answers; he never gave her a change to get a word in. His tirade came to a halt only when he saw the painful grimace on her face. He didn't realize how tight his grip was on her.

After successfully twisting her arm out of Reno's hand, Elena summed up the answers to all of her superior's questions with one statement. "Reeve was a member of AVALANCHE as much as he was a part of Shinra."

Oddly enough, it seemed Elena had actually won an argument with Reno. After a silent exchange with Rude (he never could bring himself to take action unless his partner was behind his decision), the red headed Turk turned back to Cloud. "Fine then, Blondie. You and your lackies can tag along, but if you get in my way, I'll have the cook at the mess hall serve you as lunch tomorrow. The Chocobo Stew's been getting bland lately."

Reno led his two companions, along with the 5 tag-alongs, into the lobby of the decrepit Shinra building. He certainly wasn't pleased to have such a big crew searching through the building. The power to Midgar was put out of commission by Meteor. No power meant no elevators. No elevators meant 8 people crowded onto a very long set of unstable stairs. Things could get ugly. Especially with that mammoth Barret…

Besides Cloud, who received the call from Elena, and Tifa, who was standing next to him at the time, no other AVALANCHE member really knew what was going on, other than the fact that Reeve was AWOL. It was only a matter of time before someone spoke up.

Yuffie hopped her way up to the front of the crowd and fell into pace along side Cloud. "So, oh fearless leader, what's up?"

Barret didn't hesitate to chime in after her. "Yeah. What da HELL we doin in dis damn place?" The big man looked around the lobby of the Shinra building from his spot on the stairs. He hated the sight of this place before, but now, with broken glass, fallen plaster and chucks of brick decorating the area, he almost feared it.

Cloud's response started with his characteristic shrug. "Elena told us that there was some commotion around here three days before Reeve disappeared."

As if on cue, Elena fell back with the group and explained the situation. "You see, a few months after the fall of Midgar, Reeve was being a little paranoid and had us set up this battery powered security system for the building. The higher floors still have a lot of important and possibly dangerous stuff in them, but it would've been too dangerous to send anyone up to start a clean-up. He wanted us to set up these sensors that would alter us to any activity in the building until we had a change to rent some equipment and safely clean out the building."

"So something set one of the sensors off, right?" Tifa asked the question she already knew the answer to. Elena had already told her this over the phone, but she was tired of not talking.

"Right. When we went to check it out, we didn't find anything. None of us thought much of it. There are still come creatures around here, leftovers from Hojo's lab. Nothing big enough to get worked up over, but certainly big enough to trigger the security system."

"But now you think it could be connected?"

"Yup." Reno abruptly cut in. Despite his laid back tone, he wasn't at all pleased at how readily Elena was give out information to these terrorists. "So, now that you know, shut up and save your breath. We got a lot of walking to do."

And Reno was dead serious. A silence hung over the group for a long time until, thirty or so flights of stairs and five tons of debris later, Reno, coming to a stop, spoke up again. "End of the line folks. Walk another ten feet up, and those sturdy ol' stairs won't hesitate to send you right back down to where you came from."

Rude led the way off the stairs onto the thirty-first floor. Almost immediately, all three Turks began to search the area for something. Back by the stairs, Cloud just scratched his head. "Uh, Reno. What exactly are we looking for?"

And this is the guy that led these freaks to defeat Sephiroth? "Spike, use your head. There's nothing useful to anyone until you hit the 60th floor or so. That means whoever the hell was in here the other day had to have made it past here. They would've died before making it to the 32nd floor if they stayed on the stairs and the elevator is –"

"Reno!" Rude broke his silence to alert his leader of his rather interesting discovery. Reno ran over to find his fellow Turk standing in front of an open elevator door.

"What in the hell? I sat here for half an hour last month pounding that goddamn elevator button after I walked my ass up here! What'd you do?" The redhead couldn't bring himself to tear his amazed gaze away from the opened elevator

The quiet Rude submitted his simple answer. "Someone's turned the power back on."

"Well, thank you captain obvious!" A young ninja squeezed her way through the bodies now crowded around the elevator and hopped in. Thank Leviathan, no more stairs. "Well, what's the hold up, get in!"

"Watch out, brat." With a hand on her shoulder, Reno easily moved Yuffie out of the way. "There are 8 people here – we'll be road kill if we all get on here." The three Turks made their way onto the elevator. With the doors closing, Reno issued his instructions. "Do whatever you want Spikey, but I'd suggest splitting up. No more than three people on the elevator at a time, if ya know what's good for ya."

"Damn! Dis places gives me da hibbie gibbies! Why da hell did we hafta come here?! You home sick or some shit?"

Red's only response to Barret's question was a low snarl followed by the taping of his claws on the cold marble floor. They hadn't even been searching Hojo's lab for a full five minutes, and already his companion was complaining. This is going to be a long night…

Suddenly, Red was jerked out of his reverie by a stench he knew too well. "Do you smell that?"

One large hand and on large gun-arm shot into the air in frustration. "Hell no I don't smell nothin'! Do I look like a dog to you?" Crossing his arms, he stomped a bit further into the lab

Silently sniffing both the air and the floor around them, the canine confirmed his suspicions. "It's blood… human blood." After smelling the air a bit more, Red continued both speaking and walking. "It's still fresh. Barely even dry yet. Someone's been here."

"Well, no shi –" Barret clamped his mouth shut at what his eyes caught a glimpse of. On the third stair leading up to the second level of Hojo's massive lab, a bloody hand print stood out on the otherwise clean metal.

Cloud's frustration rose as he slammed closed another drawer on the massive desk. "Nothing here." With a feeling of defeat in his chest, the blond slumped back into the large leather chair beside him. He, Tifa and Yuffie had made their ways up to the President's office. After Rufus took control of Shinra, he converted his father's luxurious office into a psuedo-storage room. All important files that he didn't think anyone should be getting their hands on were moved in. He knew how tight Shinra security was on the top floor of his father's gigantic tower, but now Cloud and his allies had no trouble barging right in.

"Nothing here either, Cloud." Tifa's tone was perky, but she couldn't help but feel just as frustrated as her leader, though she wouldn't show it. She always took it upon herself to be a shiny light of happiness in the face of despair, and from the looks of it, it was gong to be a very challenging road through this building. This is going to be a long night…

"Hmph! Stupid Shinra…" Yuffie was mumbling under her breath as she rummaged through a nearby filing cabinet. Gawd, this is boring! That spikey-headed jerk makes me come down as fast I can all the way from Wutai for this?! To get paper cuts snooping through Shinra's trash?? Hmmm, maybe they'll have some information on some super-rare materia they made. Yeah, yeah! Materia that no one knows about and would be worth millions! Yuffie was so involved with her own internal conversation they she barely realized that she was still mumbling aloud. "What a bunch of do-do brains…"

Tifa's eyebrow raise in half interest/half confusion. "What's wrong, Yuffie?"

"Hmm? Oh, right! It's just that I thought this Jeneva project thingy was supposed to be some big important deal."

Cloud immediately rose from his seat with palms planted on the desk in front of him. It's safe to say the ninja's words had caught his attention. "It was a very important thing, Yuffie. Very important."

"Well it certainly doesn't look that way to me. The little Jeneva do-hickie's folder is empty." Yuffie waved the empty folder triumphantly in the air proving herself right.

Needless to say, Elena was a little disgruntled after the reprimanding she received from Reno when they hit the storage rooms.

"What the hell's wrong with you, Laney?! Do you know what they call what you did? INSUBORDINATION! You went behind my back and told our enemies what we were doing. And out of ALL of our enemies you had to call that spikey headed bastard!?"

Elena ignored her fear for the man yelling at her and defended herself. "Look, Reeve is just as much their ally as he is ours. They had a right to know. And they're not even our enemies anymore!"

Two hands, one gripping a retracted attack rod, flew into the air. "Not our enemies?!? Need I remind you that they are terrorists out to put an end to Shinra? Well, guess what, sister. Reeve is the President of Neo-SHINRA! And I'll give it to you that Reeve is their ally. Yeah, you did the right thing by letting them know he's in danger, blah blah blah. But you didn't have to tell them where we would be and when we'd be there. How do you know he wouldn't have sunk that big-ass sword of his in one of our backs?"

This time, anger flared in Elena's eyes. "It's called TRUST, Reno! Something you obviously don't know anything about."

"Turks trust Turks, 'Lena." Reno's voice was cool and calm, all the anger subsided. His temper suddenly relinquished its hold on him. His anger had been replaced by a slight feeling of disappointment. He couldn't help but think to himself "she still doesn't get it."

Elena scanned the walls looking for something amiss. Well, at least that's what her body was doing. Her mind was too busy brooding and holding on to the anger she had for Reno. Why does he always have to embarrass me like that?

"Hey Laney, that paint's not goin' anywhere. Feel free to check somewhere else anytime now."

That's it! Reno's last comment sent Elena off the deep end. Reeve was missing, her ankle hurt like all hell, she was stuck in this run-down building, and Reno wouldn't stop hassling her. This was not the night to mess with her. Fists clenched, she made her way next to Reno, but before she could deliver her blow, a strong hand fell onto her shoulder. Rude was always there to stop her from doing something she'd regret, and, despite the glare she shot him, she was grateful for it. As much as she wanted to clock the red headed bastard, she knew if she did, Reno would make sure she'd be on dish duty at the mess hall for the next year. This is going to be a long night…

Reno could careless about Elena's feelings at the moment; he was on to something, but he wanted to make certain to confirm his suspicions before alerting his fellow Turks. He checked every room on the 63rd floor and found the same thing. "Does anyone else notice little red lights everywhere?" Elena and Rude were both silent - Elena because she thought her leader was losing his mind, and Rude because, well, he's Rude. "Well, kiddies, I do. They're on the security cameras."

"Wait a second." Elena's silence was broken when the realization came that Reno was on to something, rather than off his rocker. "Didn't we double check the cameras when we came in the other day?"

"You're damn right we did, and the filthy buggers weren't on, because we had no fucking power!" Reno's attack rod was tapping aimlessly on his outer thigh as his mind put the pieces together.

Rude's deep voice boomed in, stating aloud the next step in the thought process. "That means whoever broke in here did it after Reeve was kidnapped."

With one finger thoughtfully stroking the scar along his cheek, Reno made his way back to the elevator. "Hmmm. They probably tried to get in here the other day when the alarm was set off, couldn't get past the 31st floor, then took the President. They needed him to restore power to the building. He's the only one who knew the access codes to the back up generator." Fuck! No alarm went off between last night and now. That means that they figured out how to disarm the security system. And THAT means they know we're here looking for them.

By the time the elevator door slid open with a chime, the three were ready to leave. "I'm getting a bad feeling about this, Reno."

A comforting hand rested on Elena's shoulder. Oddly enough, it was Reno's. She figured it was his strange way of apologizing after verbally berating her earlier. "I feel it too, Laney. But don't worry. We Turks might have "cleaned up our acts", so to speak, in the past year or so, but we still aren't a bunch of push-overs." Instantly, Reno's mind shifted from his comrade to the task at hand. "We'll head over to the surveillance room, pick up the tapes from last night and today, then find those terrorist idiots and see what they found."

A/N: Maybe I should re-title this "One Long Chapter." I'm about 1000 or so words over my mark. Oh well. Fear not, we'll be graced once again by the presence of Vincent Valentine once again in a chapter or two. Please review. I'll love you if you do. (Hey, that rhymed! "I'm a poet and I didn't even know it.")