Chapter VI
He was back in Junon far sooner than he would have ever liked, but he didn't have much of a choice in the matter. In only a few minutes, the parade would begin, and all of the highest ranking SOLDIERs, the Turks, and a large portion of the military would be on alert for Sephiroth should he make an appearance. As for Rufus himself, he was currently sitting in the back of a truck at the front of the motorcade with Heidegger and three first class SOLDIERs. Rufus knew however, that even these three would be no match for Sephiroth should he make it to Rufus. He hoped that Sephiroth would be taken care of before he even came out in the open streets, although a part of him knew that even the entire Shin-Ra army wouldn't be able to fare against Sephiroth's wrath.
As Rufus' thoughts wandered, so did his eyes. They fell across the empty landing strip for the Shin-Ra air force, and he suddenly realized that it shouldn't be empty. There was supposed to be an enormous airship parked there that was going to fly across the ocean after them and pick up their helicopter from Costa Del Sol, and then bring them back to Midgar less than a day. The airship was called the Highwind, after the man who built it, and was the only one of these gigantic beauties in the world. It could fly across the ocean in hours, and thus was ideal for long distance traveling. The only reason the steamboat was being used was to create a divertive tactic meant to confuse AVALANCHE or anyone else trying to track after the president. It was only natural that after the space program collapsed and Rufus' father laid off Cid Highwind, he bought the airship off of the pilot… although Rufus had a feeling blackmailed would be a more appropriate word than bought. He knew the Highwind was undergoing maintenance, but he had assumed it would be ready by the day of the parade.
"How's the job?" he asked Heidegger, who had been quiet for most of the day. "What happened to the Airship?"
"The long range airship is still being prepared," he replied. "It should be ready in about three more days. Gya haa haa!" It was that annoying laugh that Rufus had always hated. It reminded him of a horse. Heidegger with a horse's head on his shoulders. He ignored it though, and questioned Heidegger about the alternative, which was a jet plane the air force had been developing to match the speed of the Highwind, only this would be much smaller and just as heavily equipped.
"Even the Air Force's Gelnika?"
"……Gya haa haa!" Heidegger continued to laugh. Apparently Rufus' misinformation as to the current situation of the Gelnika was funny.
"Stop that stupid horse laugh," he scolded Heidegger, now too annoyed to ignore the laugh. "Things are different than when father was in charge."
"Gya…" Heidegger bit his tongue and abruptly stopped. Regaining his cool, Rufus continued.
"Is the ship ready?" He already knew the answer to this; he just needed to hear a yes anyways in order to lighten his stress.
"Yes sir, we'll get it ready quickly." Heidegger made a radio call to someone on the ship, but Rufus ignored the conversation. He wasn't too worried about the Highwind either. If it would be ready in three days, it would still have time to fly over and pick them up, as the cruise was a three day trip. Maybe things wouldn't turn out so bad after all…
Rufus snapped out of his thoughts when the trumpets started blasting the parade march. The truck's engine roared to life seconds later and then drove out of the tunnel it sat beneath as the roar of onlookers overwhelmed Rufus' ears.
Elena hadn't always been a Turk. In fact, there had been a point only a few years earlier when she'd still been in school when she'd despised them. Of course, that was only because her sister had been a Turk. Elena and her sister had always been very competitive, and since she had become a Turk, Elena automatically decided she didn't like them. Then her sister died close to a month ago. Elena never hated her sister, and was truly devastated when she and the majority of the Turks had all been killed in one sweep. This is when Elena had made the decision to follow in her footsteps and honor her memory.
That's how she got here, Junon, sitting in full Turk uniform with a handful of grenades and a fully loaded revolver at the Turks' private bar with Reno and Tseng. This is what she thought about as she watched Reno trying to talk Tseng into a drinking contest. Reno had dated her sister for a brief time, but they had broken up months before she died. Still, she couldn't help but still feel a slight animosity towards Reno. He lived and she died. It's true that it wasn't his fault, but maybe she was just using him as an output for her anger. Elena doubted if Reno even knew that that had been her sister. He was just sitting there, talking with a soldier who had wandered in as Tseng looked on with his dark eyes. This was a man she respected. Tseng was always working, even when he was off-duty. Whatever went on in his mind was a complete mystery, but she had no doubt that he was a genius. Everyone in Shin-Ra had always said he was the best at what he did, and now that she had seen him in action, she had no doubt.
"Well, at least we know AVALANCHE is here," Tseng spoke up abruptly, snapping Elena out of her thoughts. Apparently the soldier had left and Reno was now talking to Tseng.
"What? How do you know?" asked Reno.
"Easy," Tseng replied. "I recognized his voice."
"You mean... that soldier? Shit, I thought there was something funny about him!" Reno leapt up and sprung out his rod so abruptly the bartender dropped the glasses he had been cleaning. Reno made a move toward the door, but Tseng stopped him with his arm.
"No, Reno. Put your desire for payback on hold, I've already developed a plan. Come outside with me, both of you. I have matters of which I would like to discuss… in private." Elena saw him glance briefly toward the bartender, who was busy cleaning up his mess to notice, and the trio took this opportunity to slip outside and double around the corner into an alleyway.
"Sir, what about Rude?" Elena asked in a low voice so that no one passing down the street could hear. "Shouldn't we tell him of the plan?"
"I've already spoken with him. A simple short phone call after I'm through with you will notify him of Mr. Strife's presence, and he will begin his portion of this operation. However, I wouldn't be surprised if he already has an idea of what's going on. You hear a lot when playing cards. It's one of the best ways to gather information nonviolently. Elena, that's a tip from me to you." Elena flushed a bit but nodded affirmatively, before Reno piped up.
"So then what's the deal, yo? Why won't you let me go after Cloud?"
"Our orders are to apprehend Sephiroth, should he make an appearance, keep an eye on AVALANCHE, and above all else, protect the president from harm. Now, directly assaulting AVALANCHE might instigate them to attack any important Shin-Ra exec., especially with a man like Wallace running the show. Cloud's disguise, however, leads me to believe that they might not be planning an attack on Shin-Ra as much as either trying to find Sephiroth, or sneaking aboard the ship to get to the western continent."
"But sir, couldn't that put the president in jeopardy if we allow AVALANCHE to board?"
"Exactly, Elena. However, we have also been instructed to leave them to their own devices until Sephiroth is dealt with, in case we can use them to our advantage in the meantime. I know for a fact Sephiroth is here. A few of our soldiers were found dead this morning, but it's been hushed up so as to not scare anyone, particularly the civilians. I will have Rude tail Mr. Strife as I suspect he already is, and I want you two to try to locate the other members of AVALANCHE. That's Barret Wallace, Aerith Gainsborough, Tifa Lockhart, Yuffie Kisaragi, and Experiment Red XIII. With party members such as Barret and Red XIII, it shouldn't be difficult to spot them. Do not engage them; just do whatever it takes you to make sure they do not get on board the ship. I severely doubt Heidegger's men are capable of holding them off, but if they do make it on board, it's on his head. Any questions?"
"Yeah," said Reno. "If they notice us and attack?"
"Then take them out quickly and with as little commotion as possible. No kills though. We need them alive. Just apprehend them and have some soldiers assist you in bringing them to a brig if it comes to that. Now if that's all, I have a sniping position to get to so I can make sure President Shinra isn't assassinated."
"Yes sir," said Elena.
"Aye aye skipper," Reno drawled, retracting his rod and putting it away as he took Elena by the arm and led her away. Elena, not wanting to be treated like she was one of Reno's whores but not knowing where to go otherwise, let him lead her. Besides, she thought, he wasn't that bad a guy. She looked back once more at Tseng who was already on his PHS with Rude and he gave her a reassuring nod. She then turned back and focused on her task at hand and joined Reno in the conversation he was attempting to have with her.
It hadn't been hard to find Cloud at all. As Tseng had predicted, he was trying to fall in line with the other Shin-Ra soldiers but fell short. Rude had been tailing him for a good 20 minutes now without being noticed. Cloud appeared to be more or less exploring the military base rather than trying to progress toward the ship, but than again, maybe he was looking for something else first. In any case, the parade would be starting soon, at the moment it seemed like Cloud would be participating in it. He had been caught wandering aimlessly by someone who somehow managed to pull rank on him, and now Cloud was being drilled in the proper gun salute that would be performed for the president before boarding the ship. Rude was now waiting inside of a maintenance closet across the hall from the locker room where Cloud was now, and would be able to see when they came out. He had been playing cards in one of the local bars when Cloud came in. The fact that a Shin-Ra soldier would come in there is what first roused suspicion in him, and then Rude followed him to the Turk bar, which he also went in and left soon afterward. Rude followed him back to the barracks, receiving a phone call from Tseng along the way telling him to do what he was already doing. It sucked too, because he had been winning at cards. "I better find out something useful from this, or I'm gonna be pissed," he thought to himself. Then he thought of Reno and Elena alone together, and his mood lightened.
"Damn it Reno!" exclaimed an exasperated Elena. "Why do you have to make everything so difficult!" They had been traveling across rooftops in search of the members of AVALANCHE and Elena was having difficulty keeping up. Luckily for her the rooftops of Upper Junon were close enough together for jumping across, but it was extremely tiring on her. Reno was crazy, she told herself. Only he would use this method for travel. She didn't know whether she was angrier because she had to do this, or because it was actually very effective. She had a clear view of all the alleyways below her… falling would probably kill her, but the paths Reno took her on always meant they were jumping to a lower roof or a lower catwalk that could be climbed to a higher roof.
"C'mon Elena, don't you think this is fun? It's the risk that makes all this worth doing," he replied. She gave him a disgusted sigh before continuing to follow him. They leapt again to a lower rooftop and when Reno turned behind him to peer over the edge, he abruptly held up a hand to tell Elena to be quiet. She followed his gaze to find below them, running in a discrete manner, a large black man and smaller person in sailing suits, as well as three Shin-Ra soldiers – one of them a quadruped with a long red tail. "AVALANCHE," whispered Reno. They quietly followed along the edge of the rooftop after them, watching where they went.
They continued leaping across the rooftops when necessary, keeping up a good pace with the AVALANCHE members below. Elena was getting more comfortable with it the more she did it, and was finally starting to see Reno's logic behind this method of tailing. From the look of things, it seemed like they were indeed making their way towards the ship.
"Now didn't I tell you this would work, love?" asked Reno in a voice low enough so their prey wouldn't overhear them.
"Yes, Reno… you were right…" she responded, ignoring the pet name he'd called her, as she was already getting used to these. How her sister was ever attracted to this man…
"Alright then. I hear you've got one hell of an arm."
"What?"
"Your pitching. I want you to throw a stun grenade down there. Sure they'll notice, but they'll have no idea where it came from. You're packing right? I thought that was your thing."
Elena double checked her belt just to make sure she hadn't forgotten them, and sure enough she had a good handful of grenades strapped. She jumped another gap between buildings and unclipped a grenade from her belt. She hoped this would work. She had been told after training once that she had an amazing throwing arm, but she didn't know if the man had been sincere or was just humoring her, but she'd find out in a second. She pulled out the pin and hurled the grenade downwards. It sailed further down the alley than AVALANCHE had run yet, but then it hit a wall and bounced backward, then hitting Barret in the shoulder, stopping him in his tracks. The others stopped as well in order to see what had fallen, and just as Barret spotted it lying on the ground it exploded, and a grey-white cloud filled the area, obscuring Elena's view of what happened next.
"Damn, that was awesome!" exclaimed Reno, who had also stopped in his tracks to see what had happened below. The cloud was rising, and Elena still couldn't make out anything below when Reno tossed her some sort of clip. "Tranqs. You might need them if anyone didn't go out after that. They'll be expecting another grenade, but you can still snipe shots down at them."
"What about you?" Elena asked while ejecting the clip she had in her Outsider and replacing it with the tranquilizer bullets Reno had given her.
"I'm going down to collect the prize. Don't worry, they won't spot me." Elena watched him reach into his pocket and pull out a purple materia. He tossed it in the air and sprung out his baton with the other hand. He then caught the purple in the same hand that he held the baton in, and merged the two together. After a short spell, Reno faded from sight… literally. Elena rolled her eyes thinking of Reno's showmanship, and then focused her attention on the now-fading cloud below her.
As the smoke cleared, the figures of Barret and Aerith came into focus. They were lying unconscious on the ground. However, Elena didn't see Red XIII, Tifa, or Yuffie anywhere, which meant they most likely made it out of the blast. It looked like she would have to tranq them. First she would have to find them though. If she was lucky, Reno would find them and take them out for her before she'd even have to shoot anything.
She looked over all the sides of the building, but she couldn't see anything other than the unconscious bodies of Barret and Aerith. No sounds caught her attention either, save for the faint parade music in the distance. It was on her second round back to the side where she'd tossed the grenade when she was startled by an animalistic growl that emanated from a fiery red wolf-like creature dressed in a ShinRa soldier's uniform. She was on her back in seconds with the wolf on top of her, try to claw or bite as she struggled.
Though she was a junior Turk, that didn't mean she didn't know how to deal with this kind of situation. After all, Turks, no matter how long they'd been in that position, were lethal. She took her first opportunity to roll backwards onto her shoulders and kicked the creature over her head while rolling back onto her feet. She quickly spun around and plugged a tranq into the creature while it was still recuperating. However, one bullet didn't seem to be enough for it, because it just let out a howl and charged straight for her, dodging the next two tranqs that Elena fired at it while moving quickly backwards. She finally managed to hit it a second time just as it leapt in the air at her again. In fact, a few things seemed to all happen at once in this moment.
The tranq hit the creature square in the chest as it bound toward her, but as it leapt, a strange fire seemed to surround it while a golden glow reflected off of its fur. However, as Elena was running backwards, her left foot caught the edge of the roof and she tripped backwards over the edge and down one story before landing on a fire escape. She saw the lupine creature fireball over her and land on an adjacent roof where it sounded like it stopped moving.
When Elena regained her breath and the energy to focus, she realized she could hear someone running up the fire escape. Getting to her feet and raising her gun, she turned just in time to meet a punch in the face that knocked her right back into delirium. Her initial reaction and thought process was to punch back, and it just so happened that her throwing arm was ideal for throwing hook punches.
Tifa took the blow hard, but rolled with the punch and surprised Elena with spinning back kick that told her that Tifa was no novice in martial arts. Another hammer fist from Tifa put Elena down on her back. She brought her foot up and was about to bring it down on Elena's chest when suddenly, a large man in a suit clotheslined Tifa from behind bringing her down. Rude grabbed Elena and with great ease, threw her onto the roof. Elena watched on, recovering, while Rude adjusted one of his gloves and then suddenly pounded his fist downward onto the fire escape. The entire rig trembled with a loud groan and then after a brief pause that allowed Rude to run up to the roof, it collapsed all the way down to the ground, with Tifa still on it.
"How'd you get here so fast?" Elena asked breathlessly, while Rude helped her back onto her feet.
"I could hear you guys fighting from blocks away," replied Rude. "I lost Cloud when some squad leader pushed him into the march and I reported to Tseng that I couldn't follow anymore, so Tseng's looking out for a soldier acting oddly. Then I decided to help you two out, and it was easy enough to find you. However, I still think Reno might need help. He's managed to pick a fight with her again."
Elena looked to the other side of the roof as Rude ran over there, and for the first time she noticed Reno and Yuffie locked in a serious fight. She had some strange giant shuriken in her hands and Reno was parrying her attacks furiously with his rod. Apparently at some point his cloaking wore off. When Rude made it over there, he was instantly greeted by a cartwheel dropkick ninja thing that Elena wasn't entirely sure happened in that order, but Rude managed to catch her and throw her onto the ground. Reno swung his baton down at her, but she blocked with her own weapon and then jumped back on to her feet. She shielded a punch from Rude with her shuriken and then pushed the flat side of it into his face before Reno wrestled his arm around her neck into a sleeper hold and shoved the prod end of his baton into her side, but it didn't look like he shocked her. Seeing that the fight was over, Elena made her way over and overheard Reno talking to Yuffie.
"…there you go, Princess. I been waiting for your call, yo. Didn't think you'd leave me waiting this long."
"Gawd! In your dreams, asshole. Aerith, now!" Yuffie suddenly Houdini'd her way out of Reno's grip and dove to the ground. Elena turned with her partners just in time to see Aerith standing on the roof that Red XIII had landed on. She seemed to be using some sort of magic. Elena however, had no time to try and guess which spell as a large chocobo steered by a moogle unexpectedly fell from the sky and charged at an incredible speed toward the three Turks. Elena raised her gun to fire, but wasn't fast enough and everything suddenly faded into darkness.
Rufus had never been a big fan of steamboats, to add to his list of dislikes. This was largely due to the fact that he had very poor sea legs. Add that to the three days he had been on the ship and his irritability was through the roof. In any case he stood in the middle of the command room with Heidegger, pacing as best he could, while discussing their plans to deal with everything that was going on. The room was soundproof, and so he knew he could speak freely should anyone untrustworthy come by the doors or windows. There hadn't been any reports on sightings of Sephiroth or AVALANCHE that had reached Rufus' ears. This was either an extremely good sign or a terribly bad one.
"Still no word on Sephiroth or AVALANCHE?" he asked Heidegger.
"Naw… I really don't think you have anything to worry about." Heidegger replied quickly, and Rufus knew he was hiding something.
"Why do I get the feeling you're going to be eating those words soon then?" Heidegger said nothing, but merely shuffled his feet uncomfortably. Rufus paced a bit more while going over his plans in his head. Once they touched shore in Costa Del Sol, he and Heidegger would immediately return to Midgar via helicopter in secret, so as to throw off any possible pursuers or spies. The ship would then sail back to Junon where the remaining soldiers and sailors would be publicly welcomed back to even further the illusion that Rufus had stayed behind. He had a lot of work he wasn't looking forward to lying ahead of him, and as much as he hated sailing, it beat going back to Midgar, he figured.
"Mr President…"
"Yes?" Rufus asked as he turned to Heidegger, with a half-tone of relief in his voice, hoping for some sort of answer. He knew better though, and when Heidegger replied it only solidified his doubt.
"There is one thing…" Heidegger mumbled before clearing his throat and looking Rufus in the eye." "They found a letter back at Headquarters. Hojo… he still hasn't been seen, but the letter is from him. He's resigned his post." There was an unmistakable quality of depression in his voice that Rufus couldn't help but understand. It's true that Heidegger had a lot to handle at the moment that sprung on him so suddenly. This sudden news about Hojo couldn't be helping his situation in the slightest, and so instead of yelling at Heidegger, he took a breath and responded dejectedly casual.
"And we're certain it isn't a forgery?"
"Positive."
"Then I guess we'll have to find him. I've never trusted the man, and this just proves he must be hiding something. Heidegger, I'll assume the responsibilities of the search for Sephiroth. I want you to hand off everything else you're working on to Tseng. Your top priority is to find Hojo, and I want you to have as clear a head as possible on this." Heidegger's mood instantly lightened, and Rufus knew he had been right about stress. There were times when Heidegger could be a decent man.
"Gya haa… thank you, Mr. President. I can assure you he will be located and brought into custody as soon as possible." Rufus knew he wasn't lying either. With nothing else to worry about, Heidegger would get his job done quickly and efficiently. Rufus was even willing to let that stupid horse-laugh slide this once. As for taking on the responsibilities of Sephiroth, Rufus felt like he'd already been doing that anyways, and he knew Tseng could handle anything thrown at him. Perhaps his problems would soon be dealt with and Rufus could focus on his new position as head of the company, or even have time to mourn his father. His thoughts were interrupted quickly however, as a voice rung out over the intercom.
"Emergency alert! Reports of a suspicious character found! Those not on detail, search the ship. Report when found! I repeat. Suspicious character found on board! Those not on detail, search the ship. Report when found!"
Rufus just hung his head in defeat. He had absolutely no luck. Without any emotion in his voice, he gave Heidegger his orders.
"Deal with this," he said. "Go do whatever it is you have to. Just hope that this isn't anything that will get out of hand." Without a word, Heidegger swept from the room, clearly not wanting to invoke any anger from Rufus. It didn't matter though, as Rufus doubted he had any energy in him at the moment to be angry, and so he sat down in the closest chair and just listened to the intercom's message repeat over and over.