The terrorists aren't what he expects. He thought they'd be from Wutai, but the three he spots infiltrating the Reactor look like regular Midgar civilians in ragged gear. The only one posing a threat is the one he assumes to be the leader, a man with a gatling gun attached to his arm where a hand should be. His demeanor is polished and militant. The other two are less formidable—a woman wearing a red bandana and an overweight man in a white shirt.

Cloud watches them for a while, shadowing them within the Reactor. They take care of the MPs on duty with some struggle, the woman injuring her leg, and it's clear the only real fighter is their leader. It's tough to see the other MPs get hurt. Cloud remembers when he was wearing that uniform and how much it had meant, but Heidegger left explicit directions not to interact with other Shinra employees.

He follows the trio to the Reactor core. The open pools of Mako send spiraling memories through his head. Fresh anger and pain. A raw choking sensation. No, that was years ago and irrelevant. Hojo had told him the Mako poisoning would leave these sorts of issues. He stands in shadow behind the central core in the platform suspended above the churning green lake.

The leader approaches, carrying a device. It's a pathetic makeshift bomb, barely large enough to punch a hole through the steel protecting the central structure. Are these really the terrorists Heidegger spoke of?

He waits until the leader approaches the console.

"That's far enough," Cloud says, stepping from the darkness.

A stony glare answers him.

"Who the hell are you?" The leader's voice is gruff, condescending. "Another Shinra dog?"

"Woof woof," Cloud says and readies his sword. "I was instructed to destroy you, but how about you just walk away instead?"

Because this guy does not look threatening up close. There is heavy exhaustion beneath his eyes. His skin sheens with sweat. His organic hand is trembling. Cloud doesn't want to kill him, even if he is a terrorist.

"How about you get the fuck out of my way?" the leader replies, jaw clenched. He puts the bomb back into his satchel and sets it down, eyes locked on Cloud.

"You aren't going to plant that bomb," Cloud tells him.

The leader snorts. "Oh yeah? You gonna stop me?"

The two behind the leader suddenly spring into action. Despite her wound, the woman is fast, throwing a multitude of tiny bombs, and the overweight man opens fire.

Cloud leaps to the side, putting the large flat side of his sword up like a shield. The three are fearless, desperate, and Cloud can't believe they would risk this amount of firepower so close to the core. If an uncontrolled explosion did go off, it would kill all of them.

The leader is relentless, firing a barrage of bullets in Cloud's wake as he whips around the platform. But Cloud is much faster than any of these three. He closes the distance with the leader and slices off the gatling gun. Twisted metal and wires spark, and the leader screams. This only aggravates the others into a frenzy. Cloud throws his weight against the woman, knocking her to the edge of the platform. She clings on with fingertips, precarious above the swirling Mako below. The overweight man is easy to overcome once he pauses to reload. Cloud disables him as well. His guns clatter across the grating, useless. The leader grits his teeth.

"Now I have no choice," Cloud says, and he means it. They can't escape now. He would be forced to kill them.

A sudden low rumble resonates in the walls. Cloud feels it through his boots, and the Mako splashes with the disturbance.

Cloud brings his sword to the leader's neck.

"Tell me where your other team is!" he demands. Because surely he is wrong about this group having the bomb. There must be another group setting off the real explosion.

"Ain't us, man!" the leader insists, hand raised in defense.

The ceiling shakes. The metal support beams are creaking and shifting. Cloud realizes the danger as he stares upwards at the sediment falling. He'd been wrong, and he'd need to get out fast.

When he looks back at the terrorists, they are up and running. The overweight man makes a pit stop for his female companion, but when he sees Cloud approaching, he leaves her and sprints away. She's slipping over the edge. Mako sloshes up to her boots.

Cloud wants to pursue the two on foot. He knows he should, but the thought of someone else falling into pure Mako, enveloped into that hell, makes him pause. He extends a hand out to the woman. A large beam collapses onto the platform, throwing the structure off-balance. She falls and he grabs her wrist, hauling her up.

"Aren't you supposed to ki-ki-kill me?" She regards him with wide eyes, pure fear.

"C'mon," he replies in annoyance, pulling her with him.

He knows this Reactor well—most are built with the same layout—and drags her enroute to the nearest exit. But the blood loss from her leg is profuse. They'll never make it out at this rate. He sheathes his sword and picks her up. She's light, and she struggles at first then realizes their peril and simply holds onto him.

The entire Reactor is crumbling down around them. He runs fast across splitting concrete and metal grating sliding away. Corridors disintegrate into dust behind him. The stairs are the worst part, but once he reaches the maintenance exit, he keeps running with her to get as far from the destruction radius as possible. Could one bomb have really done all this?

A wave of smoke and debris overtakes him. He can't see anymore so he plants her down and shields her with his body just as something blunt and heavy smacks into his ribs. She's curled into a ball. A chemical cloud of awful Mako mixed with burning metal stings his throat and eyes. He holds his breath and the roar of the falling Reactor rushes all around.

Then, it's over. Thick plumes of smoke cover the sky. Dust suspends in the air, and the woman is coughing and gagging. They are both coated with white ash. He can only see her eyes, and she his.

"You okay?" he asks, looking back at the empty space where the Reactor just was, now a pile of rubble and smoke.

She nods. "What the hell was that?" she asks between coughs.

"That wasn't your team? Didn't your group plan to take down this Reactor?"

She hesitates.

"Answer me."

"Yeah, but not like that!" she shouts. "That wasn't the plan!"

"So you are part of the terrorist group."

She presses her back against the wall, avoiding his gaze. He knows he can't let her go free now.

"Empty your pockets," he tells her. She has to be a prisoner if he isn't going to kill her outright.

She complies, handing over a healing materia in silence. He pops it alongside the ice materia in his own weapon, and she scatters various components for explosives to the street, all inert. Civilians from the neighboring blocks are wandering into the wreckage, and it's time to go.

"I...I need to bring you in for questioning," he says, but even he doesn't fully believe this is what will happen to her.

She's in no position to argue. He helps her up and lets her lean on him while they leave the Sector. Emergency crews speed past, sirens flashing, and people stand in the street, gawking at the smoldering hole behind them as they head towards the Shinra Tower.

"What are you?" she asks. "Are you some kinda SOLDIER?"

"Please don't talk to me." He doesn't want the guilt of his failure to compound if he begins to develop empathy for her beyond the Mako saturation.

"Because I've never seen a SOLDIER move like that before."

"Oh yeah? How many SOLDIERs have you seen?"

She doesn't respond. They walk slow. He wants to carry her again, but he realizes he doesn't want to reach the Tower quite so soon. He's still picking apart how exactly that explosion could've happened if the terrorists weren't involved. Both this woman and their leader had denied it, and wasn't that the whole point of a terrorist attack? To accept responsibility?

"My name is Jessie," she offers.

"Please don't," he replies.

"What, do SOLDIERS not have names?"

"Yeah, we get numbers," he jokes, but it falls flat because she looks like she actually believes him.

The din of the sirens fades, and they cross out of the threshold of Sector One and into the Shinra Tower's perimeter.

"Why did you save me, Mr. Not-a-SOLDIER?"

It's an innocent question. He tells her the truth.

"Because you were going to fall into the Mako."

"So?"

"Have you ever fallen into Mako before?"

She shakes her head then falls silent. The Tower looms, blotting out the night sky.

"Well, this is it. I hope I never see you again," he says, bringing her around to the side entrance. The flashy lobby is not for prisoners.

He delivers her to the MPs on duty, placing a call to Heidegger and informing him of the prisoner. As they take Jessie away, he notices she's still covered in ash like a ghost, trailing puffs behind her. He's no better, and he goes upstairs to his room to shower.

But when he walks past the executive board room, he overhears harsh whispering.

"You almost killed my Asset!" Hojo is saying, extremely pissed-off.

Cloud pauses, listening. He hasn't seen or heard from Hojo since the transfer.

"Your asset?" Heidegger scoffs. "That thing is company property, not your little pet anymore. Besides, it was a great test of its stamina, no?"

"You almost threw away years of scientific work. And for what? To gain public scorn for a bunch of motley citizens that your department can't get a handle on?"

"Watch your tone. Don't forget whose sympathy allowed you to keep your pathetic science division after all those consecutive failures."

Hojo huffs loud and angry. Cloud backs away from the door just as Hojo throws it open. The professor storms right past him without acknowledgement. Heidegger cackles.

"Come in," Heidegger says to Cloud, seeing him in the hall. "This prisoner you caught. You did well."

Cloud enters the board room, standing near the lavish mahogany table, feeling very out of place.

"But the Reactor," he begins, knowing he must address his failure, "it still—"

"Yes, yes, I know," Heidegger consoles. "But now we have an even better opportunity thanks to you."

"We do?"

"Public execution!"

Heidegger's eyes brighten with the thought. His lips curl in a malicious smile. Cloud feels a little sick suddenly.

"We just need to capture the rest of those little fuckers. And put them all to death at once, squashing the whole sect!"

"Understood. Permission to be dismissed, sir," Cloud says, wanting nothing more than to wash the grime of destruction off his skin.

Heidegger's smile fades.

"Fine, fine, get out of here. I'll need you when we have more intel. You did a fine job. Almost makes Hojo's bickering worth it."

Cloud leaves, uncertain of what he just overheard. It sounded like Shinra caused that Reactor to self-destruct, not any terrorist cell. And they knew he'd be inside. Perhaps it truly was a test, a final rigorous examination of his limits.

He tries not to read too deep into it as he drifts off to sleep. But his nightmares are filled with Mako.