A/N: Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry…!

I apologise for the delay, but things have been a tad chaotic for me for a while, and I've had a MASSIVE writer's block. Again, sorry for the delay. And thanks for all of the encouraging reviews. As a way of showing my gratitude (and that my writer's block is conquered) this chapter is the longest so far (possibly in any of my fanfics), and has a lot of character moments including my first real experience of writing the Turks.

As a matter of fact, I've decided to split this day in two. And I've had to take some stuff planned for day two over to day three.

Okay – time for a quick recap:

In the prologue, set five days after Cloud had handed Sephiroth the Black Materia, Cid was impatiently waiting in a Junon bar, until Yuffie herded Cait Sith in. Cait then revealed that Rufus was planning to execute Tifa and Barret, while Vincent and Nanaki were going to be transported to Midgar. Meeting up with one of the crew of the Highwind, Cid comes up with a cunning plan to rescue their friends.

On the first day, Cloud gives Sephiroth the Black Materia, and Avalanche and the Shin-Ra escape upon the Highwind. Heidegger almost thumps Hojo when he discovers that Vincent, who Hojo had reported dead, is still alive. Arriving in Junon, Avalanche and Hojo are put under arrest.

Well, sit back and I hope you enjoy the third instalment of 'Prisoners'.

Disclaimer: I still own nothing in this fic. Square-Enix does.

Day 2.

Hojo glared out of the window of the room he'd been put in. How dare they arrest him! Rufus must be under the delusion that the scientist leaving meant that he'd severed all links with the Shin-Ra. He still had the knowledge of the Facility, which Rufus surely wouldn't know about yet…

'Hojo…'

The scientist whirled on the spot, and glanced everywhere. Where did that voice come from?

'Hojo…'

There it was again. It sounded like it came from his own--

An energy equal to approximately 200 watts grounded itself in Hojo's mind. The scientist's mouth opened in a silent scream, as his eyes glazed over behind his thick opaque spectacles.

And two glowing aquamarine eyes looked on from the shadows. His form may be held fast in solid crystal, but his psycho-neural net – his soul – was free to walk where he wished. He walked over to the scientist.

Presently, Sephiroth smiled.

"Hello, Professor. Mother and I have a job for you…"

Yuffie looked down at Tifa sleeping on one of the two beds in the room. "Gawd, what a mess…" She whispered to herself, and shook her head sadly. "Gawd!" She shrieked, causing the other members of Avalanche to startle and look at her concernedly. "First Aerith, then Cloud, and now--"

"We haven't lost Tifa." Vincent broke in harshly. "Not yet." He added softer.

Yuffie nodded, and sniffed. "Y-yeah, I know, b-but… it feels like we're being torn apart…"

"HA! That'll only happen if we let 'em, and if they try, we'll kick their asses from here to the soddin' Promised Land." Cid laughed, his voice full of false bravado.

Nanaki glanced at the pilot with a slight grimace. He slowly strolled over to Yuffie and sat at her feet and looked up at her face. "We'll be fine. Tifa will wake up, and we'll then go and find Cloud." He said quietly. "I promise."

Yuffie sniffed and smiled half-heartedly. "Aww...thanks Red." She threw her arms around his neck. "You're a good kitty." She giggled slightly when Nanaki growled disapprovingly at being called a kitty.

"…Is this is bad time?" The assembled members of Avalanche turned and looked at the usually guarded doorway. Rude of the Turks was standing there, looking slightly awkward.

"What you want, baldy?" Barret growled.

Rude tilted his head so his shades slid to the end of his nose and peered over them at Barret for a while. "I'll overlook that baldy comment if it's all the same to you." He replied, pushing his shades back into place. He then cleared his throat. "Ms Kisaragi? I've been told it's time for you to have your shower."

Yuffie's face fell. "I'm supposed to take a shower…with YOU chaperoning?" She looked like she was about to start screaming again.

Rude's face started to turn to the same colour as Vincent's cape. "Those…are my orders, I'm afraid."

"No…FRICKIN'…way." Yuffie said, breathing deeply to keep her composure. "Your bosses want me to wash myself? Get… Blondie. Y'know, that female Turk…"

"Elena." Nanaki fed her through the corner of his mouth.

"Right, Elena." Yuffie pounced on the name. She pointed at Rude. "YOU go find Elena, or explain to whichever Shin-Ra fuck is in charge why you went back with a bit of the furniture embedded in your ass!"

Rude stared at Yuffie for a while. "Right. Well. I'm glad we managed to get that sorted out. I'll be back." He walked out closing the door behind him.

"What the hell're those bastards thinkin'?!" Cid finally exploded. "Sending a man to watch a kid bathe to make sure she don't pull anything?! Those bloody perverted…"

"Bastards?" Vincent supplied dryly. Everyone turned and looked at him. It was the first time any of them had ever heard the former Turk use a profanity.

Rude exhaled as he walked down the hallway, thanking every holy name that he could think of that he'd managed to get out of that. He'd not been looking forward to that. Even Reno, the original self-styled 'ladieeezzz'-man, had balked slightly when the order had been given. He wasn't sure how old the Wutain girl was, but however old she was, it wasn't right keeping an eagle's eye on her to make sure that she didn't try anything. In fact, he was slightly surprised that neither Heidegger or Scarlet had told Elena to do it originally - although, he guessed that would require a degree of humanity that he suspected the senior members of Shin-Ra were lacking.

"Hey, where's the princess, yo?"

Rude turned, knowing whom it was before he'd even finished. "Hello Reno. What do you mean, 'princess'?"

Reno threw his head back with a cocky grin. "Just been checkin' the records, muh man. Turns out, Yuffie Kisaragi doesn't just share the same last name as the ruler of Wutai - Godo's her papa, yo."

Rude looked at his colleague. "And they wanted me to watch her shower?" Rude shook his head. "Anyway, she's threatened me with GBH unless I get Elena to take over for me."

Reno picked his shades off his forehead and itched thoughtfully at the side of his mouth with one of the arms. "Smart girl, yo. Maybe you shoulda told her about your feelings about Tifa to reassure her?"

"Hhnn." Rude grunted.

"…No change in her condition, then?" Reno asked sympathetically. He put a conspiratorial arm around Rude's shoulders. "Tell you what, yo. We find 'Lena, give her the job of escorting Kisaragi-hime to the showers, then we'll go get drunk. And tomorrow, I'll let you join me in a little job that Rufe wanted me to do by my lonesome. It'll make you feel better, yo, promise." Reno grinned evilly. "We gotta take Hojo to see the bigwigs."

A/N: On to Day Two, Part Two! You can review now if you wanna break.