When Tifa and Cloud entered Reeve's office they were surprised to see Miles sitting behind the desk waiting for them. The office was dark with just the faint city lights lighting the room through the large window. Despite the darkness, Tifa could tell something was wrong with Miles. Not only did he look weary and worn, there was something about the expression on his face that worried her. He was slumped down in the chair holding his side.
Upon seeing Tifa's face, Miles forced a faint smile.
"Glad to see you're okay Tifa," he told her.
"Where's Chloe?" Tifa demanded. Although she would love to confront him right now, her first priority was finding her daughter.
"I don't know…" Miles said softly. He was ashamed and embarrassed for letting himself be played so easily.
"What did you do to her?" Cloud growled, growing impatient. He was just as eager to find his child and he didn't have time for these games.
Miles scowled at Cloud. "I would never hurt her!" Miles tried to shout but he was in too much pain. He closed his eyes for a second as a wave of pain rushed over him. He then he looked at Tifa for explaining. "I tried to stop him from taking her, but he overpowered me," Miles informed Tifa as he removed his hand to reveal a large wound with the side of his shirt and coat stained with blood.
"Who took her?" Tifa asked with a worried expression.
"Weiss, but I think it's really Hojo," Miles informed her.
A wave of fear rushed through Cloud. He had heard from Vincent about Weiss being possessed by Hojo, but he thought the scientist was defeated years ago. Sensing Cloud's worry, Tifa looked at him.
"Who's Hojo?" she asked. She thought she might have head Genesis mention the name in passing when talking about Weiss going crazy, but he never went into detail.
"An evil and depraved man," Cloud informed her. "She's in a lot of danger."
"What could he want with her?" Tifa asked, looking between Miles and Cloud.
"I can think of a few things," Cloud commented. After what Hojo did to him, he didn't even want to think about what he would do to his daughter. Cloud turned to Tifa. "We need to find her as soon as possible." He was about to leave when Tifa stopped him.
"Wait," she stopped Cloud, causing him to look back at her. "We can't leave him like this," she said, motioning to Miles sitting in the chair holding his wound. Even in the dim light she could see the dark stain on his white shirt had grown.
"You're serious?" Cloud asked, looking bemused. Cloud felt Miles deserved everything that came to him and the last thing he wanted to do was help the scientist.
"He might be able to help us," Tifa suggested. Although she would never forgive him for lying to her, she didn't want to see him suffer like this. Plus, he was the last one to see Chloe.
Cloud sighed, she made a good argument. He walked over closer to him to use his cure materia.
"Thank you," Miles said to Tifa smiling. "I knew the last few months must have meant something to you too," he commented then glanced over at Cloud with an evil smile on his face.
Seeing the look of satisfaction on the scientist's face, Cloud glared at Miles silently as he healed him.
"Don't push your luck, Miles," Tifa said, scolding the man. "I'm still mad you lied to me and after we get Chloe back, I never want to see you again."
By now the cure spelled had passed over and with his wound mostly healed Miles was feeling better. Seeing the look anger on Tifa's face, Miles' grin disappeared.
"I think I might know where they are," Miles informed Tifa, trying to make amends.
Miles was about to walk around the desk towards them when suddenly the window shattered, and Genesis came flying towards the scientist with his sword raised. Grabbing hold of his lab coat Genesis pinned Miles' back on the desk forcing him down. Leaning on him with his sword to Miles' throat Genesis glared at him.
A look of horror appeared on Miles' face as Genesis pressed the sword a little deeper against his throat. He wanted to speak but the sword was so tight he was afraid it would cut him if he tried.
"Genesis, what's wrong?" Tifa asked her friend. Cloud was standing next to her with his sword raised as a precaution.
"He tried to poison me," the winged man said through clenched teeth while still glaring at Miles.
Tifa was shocked to hear this. She frowned at Miles who was looking over at her as if begging for her help.
"Any last words?" Genesis asked, releasing the sword a little so the man could talk.
"It was Weiss' idea," Miles explained franticly. "He's possessed by Hojo."
Genesis looked over at Tifa to confirm this accusation.
"He has Chloe," Tifa informed him with a worried expression.
"That's still no excuse for betraying me," Genesis said to Miles as he pressed the sword back against his throat.
"Please Genesis," Tifa said, putting her hand on his arm stopping him. "He's the only one who knows where to find Chloe."
Genesis' furious expression softened as Tifa looked at him with her big brown eyes. The last thing he wanted to do was upset her; she had a way with people he couldn't explain. Genesis looked down and gave Miles one last threatening glare before released the sword from his neck.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Miles put his hand around his neck checking it for blood before pushing himself off the desk.
"This is not over," Genesis warned Miles. "Once we find Weiss and Chloe, we'll finish this."
Cloud couldn't help but grin as he watched the scene between Genesis and Miles unfolded. Seeing Miles panic with the terrified look on his face gave Cloud a great deal of satisfaction.
"Where are they?" Tifa asked Miles, eager to find her daughter.
Miles stopped to think. "Weiss, err, Hojo is going to the laboratory and he has both keycards."
"We have one," Tifa informed Miles and they all exited the office towards the elevator.
The Battle on the ground was beginning to look grim. Not only did the army outnumber them, they were also equipped with powerful weapons and materia. Not to mention the giant robot. At least Cid was doing a good job distracting the robot so that was one less thing they had to worry about.
Yuffie looked around at her teammates. Barret and Nanakin appeared battered and exhausted. Even Vincent looked a little weary in his chaos form. Even Yuffie was having difficulty conjuring the strength needed to use her materia. She recast a magic barrier just before a renegade cast an ice spell on Nanakin, preventing more damage.
"Please," Yuffie said out loud to her ancestral deities. "If you help us out, I promise to never say anything to jinx us again…" She stopped to throw her conformer at an opponent then continued her prayer. "And I promise to visit the temple every year," she added.
Suddenly two attackers managed to dodge Nanakin's fire spell and rushed Yuffie. They raised their guns to fire but before they could pull the trigger James came crashing down on top of them with his big sword.
Thinking he was the enemy, Barret aimed his arm at the big man ready to fire but Alex and Katerina came running up towards him.
"Don't shoot!" Alex called.
"We're here to help, Tifa sent us," Katerina added as she attacked a renegade armed with a sword.
"Can't you order them to stop?" Barret asked, lowering his gun arm away from James.
Alex laughed. "They don't know who we are," he said as he sliced the man across the chest. Being trapped for over years in a Deepground laboratory, the only people who knew of their existence were seasoned members like Genesis.
With the extra help the battle was starting to turn in their favor. They were more than half way through the group when Alex, who was closest to the robot, heard the Shera fly overhead. When he looked up, he was sure he saw something small fall out of the airship and land on the machine.
"What is it?" Katerina asked, noticing Alex gazing upwards.
"I thought I just saw a cat fly out of that airship," he answered, looking over at her bewildered.
"Do you get hit over the head?" Katerina asked, looking at him like he was crazy.
They continued fighting and the number of remaining enemies were starting to decline. Then a loud explosion could be heard above them. They all looked up to see that a large metal piece of the robot's chest had been blown off and came crashing down towards them followed by some debris and Cait Sith landing on his feet.
"See, I'm not crazy," Alex told Katerina just as he dodged a large section of falling metal.
"What is that thing?" Katerina asked, wondering if it was friend or foe.
"That's Cait Sith, he's with us," Yuffie yelled over to Katerina after catching her conformer.
"Cait Sith number 6 at your service," the mechanical cat introduced himself, giving a little bow.
As they finished off the last group of enemies, Alex stopped what he was doing when he noticed the Shera fire a weapon at the robot successfully hitting it. Then Alex looked and noticed that the airship was starting to arm all its weapons. After experiencing it once, he would never forget that sound again. Knowing what was coming next, Alex alerted the others.
"Guys!" he called out to his friends. "That airship's doing that thing again!"
Five Minutes Earlier…
After Cait Sith exited the airship, Reeve, Cid and the Turks watched as he scurried down the robot and onto the big box on its chest. Using Cid's lighter, the toy cat lit the stick of dynamite and dropped it into a small opening of the robot then quickly scurried towards the robot's shoulder area.
When the TNT detonated, the blast caused the box to fly off the robot onto the ground below. The tremor from the blast also caused Cait Sith to lose his balance and fall.
The distraction allowed Cid a chance to fire a weapon at the robot to see if the shield had been destroyed. The projectiles hit and after the smoked cleared they could see the robot was slightly damaged.
"Cid, I think it's time to bring out the big guns," Reno informed the captain who smile in response, knowing exactly what the redhead was referring to.
Cid looked down at a crew member manning the controls to the right of him. "Ready the weapons," he called out.
The crew member franticly started to press buttons arming all the weapons on the airship. After a few seconds, the crew member turned to look at his captain.
"Armed and ready sir," the man informed him.
Cid reached into his pocket to pull out a cigarette. Everyone was stood silently as they watching the pilot franticly search all his pockets for a lighter. Realizing he didn't have one, he looked down at the group below.
"Little help?" he asked.
Reno reached into his jacket pocket, pulled out a lighter and threw it up to Cid. The captain lit his cigarette and took a long drag before letting out a smoke-filled sigh of relief.
"Fire!" Cid ordered his crew member who launched all the weapons.
Instantly all the airships' weapons discharged simultaneously, bombarding the robot in an explosion of fire. After what felt like minutes the projectiles ceased firing and the smoke cleared.
"I can never get tired of watching that," Reno commented to Rude as he watched the destruction.
Most of the robot's exoskeleton was either destroyed or in pieces surrounding it. With the base of the robot no longer unable to stand, the defeated machine toppled into the WRO building behind it. The force of the impact caused the building to shake rapidly and damage the bottom five floors it crashed onto.
With the robot destroyed, the Shera circled as it waited for the dust to settle to assess the damages. After seeing that the robot had crashed into the building, they just hope there was no one harmed in the wreckage.