X Captured

Zack blinked as he looked back at the map, and mentally smacked himself for not seeing it before.

"They're sending a message then," he said.

It was clear that they held a grudge against ShinRa, and while he couldn't really blame them, he didn't really understand why now of all times.

"You're positive that ShinRa's changed these days?" he asked.

"Yeah."

Zack sighed, then went back to studying the map a bit more to try and figure out where they would strike next. If they could just warn them to be prepared for it, then it wouldn't be much of a problem anymore. Of course if they could figure out what exactly was going on with them in the first place and stop the attacks all together that would be even better.

"Nibelheim," Kunsel said.

Just hearing the name made Zack tense up, then he remembered how he rescued Cloud from Hojo's clutches the last time he was there. He still hadn't told Cloud about it, but it looked like he had really saved him from the same fate.

"You ok?" Kunsel asked, noticing that Zack had turned a bit pale.

"Yeah," he assured him.

Knowing how Nibelheim brought up countless bad memories for Zack, he didn't press further.

"Let's just tell Tseng what we know," Zack said.

Cloud yawned as he poured himself a cup of coffee. He had gotten home late the night before from his deliveries to Junon, and hadn't gotten as much sleep as he'd hoped. Little Zackary had slept through the night, which was nice, but Zack had unexpectedly stayed the night again and hadn't been too quiet this time. It was times like this when he hated having so much mako in his system. It enhanced his senses way too much.

"Morning." Zack said as he cheerfully walked into the kitchen.

Cloud groaned in response, still half asleep.

"Late night?" Zack asked.

He muttered something under his breath that Zack couldn't quite make out.

"Can't hear you Cloud," Zack told him as he got himself a glass of water from the tap.

"I said, next time can you guys try and keep it down?"

He wasn't really annoyed, he sounded more disturbed, and, more than anything else, tired.

"...Oh..."Zack said, blushing slightly. "You, uh, heard all that last night?" he asked.

Cloud nodded grimly, then took a sip of his coffee. Zack had been very hesitant about getting intimate with Aerith, after all he knew how easy it would be to accidentally hurt her, but they had talked about it many times before and decided to go through with it. He had been as careful and gentle as he tried to be, and to his relief didn't harm her.

"We'll go elsewhere then next time, that way you and Tifa can get a little more privacy, too."

"Zack!" Cloud whined, turning bright red.

"What? Your son didn't come out of thin air, and we both know that in a couple years he'll probably start asking for a little brother or sister."

Cloud groaned as he shook his head. He had forgotten how annoying Zack could be, while Zack had forgotten how much fun it was to occasionally mess with him.

"Any word from Tseng yet?" he asked, changing the subject.

"Nothing," Zack told him. "It's weird, as soon as we start to figure it out they completely disappear on us."

"Maybe they're all gone," Cloud suggested.

"That's what I'd like to think, too, but they could just be messing with our heads, making us think that to let our guard down."

Cloud nodded, understanding his point.

"We can only hope that's not the case."

The last thing any of them wanted was an unexpected huge assault.

"That's the last of them," Zack said as he gently put the last cardboard box of Aerith's thing down.

Aerith looked up from the box she had begun unpacking and smiled at him. Living together was a big step in their relationship, but they both had been talking about it for a little while. Aerith was the one who mainly wanted to go through with it. Being apart from him for so long, she kept feeling like he could slip away and disappear right from under her fingers. While she hadn't told him about it directly, Zack could guess what she was feeling.

He was a little hesitant about it, for he had frequent nightmares about accidentally hurting her, or brutally murdering her, but he pushed them away. They terrified him, made him want to distance himself from her, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. It would be too cruel for both of them.

"I got you something," he said as he gently hugged her from behind.

"Oh you didn't have to do that, Zack," she said.

"You'll like it, trust me," he assured her. "It's outside in the back."

She raised an eyebrow, wondering what it could be. She took his hand as he led her outside, and once they were there Zack covered her eyes with his hands. She trusted him, so she led him carefully lead her around the building and didn't try and peak out.

"Ok," he said cheerfully as he took his hands off of her face. "You can look now."

She gasped as she saw that Zack had not only completely repaired her old flower wagon, but repainted it to make it look nicer. The main part of the wood was a clean smooth white, while the trim and wheels were a nice calm golden yellow. For the finishing touch he had taken some thick/durable pink fabric and tied large neat bows around it.

"You like it?" he asked.

"It's beautiful!" she said as she tightly hugged him in thanks. "I love it, thank you, Zack."

He smiled at her, glad that she liked it much better than she did before. He leaned down to kiss her, when of course his phone rang. He groaned in annoyance, but pulled it out of his pocket to see who it was.

"It's Tseng, I better get it."

She nodded, and he went inside.

"Any news?" he asked.

"There still hasn't been any sign of them, but there's something I thought you should know."

Zack tensed up a bit, he didn't like the hint of worry in Tseng's voice. He had a feeling that this wasn't good news.

"What is it?" he asked ,not really sure if he wanted to know.

"Kunsel's gone missing."

Zack paled and tensed. He had just seen Kunsel a couple days ago.

"For how long?" he asked.

"Three days."

The same day Zack had seen him last. He didn't like this.

"Has anyone gone out and looked for him?"

"We tried, but couldn't find any traces."

Zack groaned in frustration and hung up without any warning. Just when he had finally started to settle down and enjoy some peace, this disaster struck. He hated it. He shoved his phone back into his pocket and banged his fist into the wall in frustration.

"Zack?" Aerith asked worriedly as she came inside.

"Kunsel's gone missing," he told her. "I should go look for him."

He hated leaving her like this. They had planned to go out and celebrate her moving in with a nice quiet romantic dinner and maybe snuggle up on the couch with a movie after, but now that wasn't going to happen.

"I'm sorry, Aerith," he apologized.

"No, it's ok," she said, trying not to sound too disappointed. She had gotten used to this kind of thing when Zack was in SOLDIER, back then he had to cancel whenever something unexpected came up and he had to leave. "This is more important anyway."

He nodded, glad she understood.

"I'll make it up to you another night," he told her.

"Just be careful."

He nodded and quickly gave her a quick kiss, then took a minute to gather his Buster Sword and some materia before heading out the door.

"You're sure?" Cloud asked him over the phone.

"Not completely, but there's only one way to find out. I just don't wanna go in there alone."

"Alright, I'll be there in a bit."

Cloud hung up his phone, then turned to a worried looking Tifa holding little Zackary in her arms.

"Zack needs me for something."

He didn't want to tell her all the details, that Zack somehow had figured out where exactly they were experimenting on the missing SOLDIERs and turning them into monsters, and now they were gonna check it out. Knowing all that would make her worry too much, so he wanted to keep it simple.

"You'll be careful, won't you?" she asked.

Ever since he had almost died after the his last fight with Sephiroth, she worried about him every time he left. He understood where she was coming from, and didn't blame her one bit.

"Yeah, I'll be back soon."

He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek, followed by a soft kiss on his son's forehead.

"Daddy will be back soon, ok?" he told him.

He couldn't talk yet except for the frequent baby babbling every baby did, and while Cloud wasn't sure if he completely understood him, but little Zack waved goodbye when Cloud did the same.

The ShinRa building was an absolute mess on the outside, and while it didn't look that bad from a distance at night, Cloud could see that it was falling apart at the seams when he pulled up to it on Fenrir. The attack from WEAPON had completely destroyed the last few floors, and more damage had been done from his last fight with Sephiroth and the remnants, but the most damage was done on the assault when Deep Ground was still around.

"Why would they be here?" he thought to himself out loud.

"Think about it," Zack said from behind, startling him. "I take out the monster in the Corel area and then that night three show up around here. I think we're close to the source."

"But didn't the WRO search every inch of ShinRa after Deep Ground?" Cloud asked.

"Yeah," Zack said, knowing full well that was true since he had taken part in it, "but that was a while ago. Whoever is pulling the strings could've gotten the labs up and running again somehow."

Cloud nodded, seeing that he had a good point.

"So what's the plan?" he asked, hoping that Zack had one for once.

"Sneak in through the back and see if anything's active or anyone's home. If there is, we'll get some answers one way or another."

"And if not?"

"We go home and think of other possibilities."

Zack hoped that it wouldn't be the case. Kunsel's humanity was on the line, and time was against him. He needed to find the answers quick, and he needed to be right about this.

Just hang on Kunsel... he thought as they began to climb the back stair way in darkness.

They were both thankful for their mako vision that allowed them to see in the dark much better than the average person, but even then they still couldn't rush because of the frequent broken step.

"This is taking too long," Zack said in annoyance a few minutes later, seeing that they were only on the tenth floor.

Then he got an idea, and looked back at Cloud.

"Do you still get motion sickness?" he asked.

"Not really, why?"

Before Cloud could protest Zack picked him up by the waist as he spread his wing and began to fly up the stairs at top speed. They were at the end within seconds. Zack gently set his friend down, who wobbled a bit from dizziness, but was otherwise fine.

"A little more warning next time, please!"

"Sorry," Zack said as he opened the stairway door and poked his head out.

The hallway was completely silent and deserted, but the lights that were still working were on. A few of them flickered, and one was hanging out and dangling by a few wires that looked like they could snap at any moment.

"Power's on up here," he told him as he opened the door and stepped out into the hall and scanned the area as he took off his gloves.

"It's too quiet," Cloud commented as he stepped out with a tight grip on his sword.

Zack nodded in agreement, his old SOLDIER instincts telling him that something wasn't right. He felt a sudden sting in his arm, and quickly realized that he had been hit by a tranquilizer. He pulled it out as fast as he could, but already he could feel its effects.

Damn.

They had walked right into a trap. He heard Cloud call out his name as two more were fired at them both from their hidden enemies. He heard Cloud fall to the floor unconscious right before he did, and saw two pairs of footsteps slowly approaching him before everything slowly faded to black.

Author's Notes

Another late update T_T But it's almost time for my plot twist *crazy Hojo laugh* Anyway, chapter 11 is about half way done, and I could probably finish it soon, but my friend introduced me to Chrono Cross and I've mainly been playing that in my free time *Sweatdrop* Square makes good games, and man are they addicting...