Chapter 7: Sneaking in.

"Hey Carbuncle." Alex looked around after coming upon Carbuncle who himself was looking around. He found the GF at the end of the 2F hallway near the emergency exit after coming from class. "What are you looking for?"

"There was a monster here last night." Carbuncle turned his head to the side and eyed the door carefully, trying to pick up any traces of something, anything it could have left behind. After not detecting anything with the naked eye, he decided to enhance his vision instead of just writing it off. "Diamond Lens." As if a light had just shined on something that had always been there, a clear, round object appeared in front of his face. "Yup, look at this."

"Whoa, that is really cool." Alex dropped his books on the ground and knelt down next to Carbuncle, first looking at the door on his own and finding nothing, then tilting his head to the side just enough to peer through the floating ring with one open eye. "I see something but barely, It's greasy finger prints, and there's a palm print too... Let me see this." Alex took the lens from in front of Carbuncle and held it over his left eye before peering upward along the door and wall. "There's a trail of them, something was climbing the wall...and the ceiling."

"Me and Zell heard something last night about 3 in the morning." Carbuncle said, "Did you hear it?"

"Nope." Alex looked over the lens, shifting it around in his hands "Is this a diamond?"

"Uh-huh." Carbuncle sounded as if he wasn't paying attention anymore, he was too busy looking along the floor "It magnifies magic attacks, it's kinda funny how I remember all of that stuff."

"I got some time between the next class, why don't we head to the training center?" Alex reached over and picked up his books. "You can finish showing stuff and I can tell you more of what happened."

Carbuncle's ear's perked and he looked up. "Ok, but...you have a class at 7 the morning?"

"Yeah, doesn't it suck?" Alex ran a hand through the short white hair on his head and sighed. "They make me get up super early, but it's worth it I guess. I'm trying to become a pilot."

'Nida's a pilot too.' Carbuncle thought "I have I better idea, why don't we train outside?" Carbuncle asked.

"I think we're going to be parked here for a while, why not."

! - ! - !

Cho never realized how long he'd been sleeping until he felt the sunlight shining down on his face from the window. 'Uhhhh...' Cho opened his eyes and rubbed his head. "...What time is it?"

"Around 7." He heard Zone's voice from behind the blinding morning light and blurry morning vision.

Cho sat up, he'd slept on the strategy room floor "Did we sit here all night?" He held on to the table and climbed on to his feet, stretching a little before walking over to the window. "We're in Deling train station."

"Yeah, we were all too tired to even attempt to do anything last night, so we waited." Zone was looking over a few papers on the table in the center of the room. "Get a good rest?"

"Not bad for a sleep on the floor." Cho looked around the room, he and Zone were the only ones here. His teammates must have awaken before him, which he decided he needed to find and headed toward the stairs.

"You know..." Zone glanced over at him from the corner of his eyes "I'm going to win my money back."

"You can keep trying." Cho smiled slightly, opening the door. "But it's gonna cost you." He called back before disappearing out side of the door way.

'Weasel.'

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

Nida never saw this city in the day time, so it struck him as peaceful upon first glance. Besides the overall crowdedness that came with Deling, it was peaceful for a large town, that was until they saw the abundance of soldiers posted and patrolling the city. There were plenty, though the people didn't seem to mind or notice since they were long use to it. Nida didn't think he ever could.

Seifer walked casually through the crowds in the shopping district, Shadow at his heals, Nida on the opposite side and Cho in front. "Is it just me or does anyone else think this wont work?" Cho asked.

"They do seem organized at least, and from what I've heard from Squall they have had some good plans when he dealt with them in the past." Despite what he was saying Nida wasn't so sure about leaving they're fate in the hands of someone like Zone.

"Be realistic, they're idiots." Seifer snorted indifferently. "I can't believe they're not dead yet, with someone like him in charge. Do we really have to listen to him?"

"You couldn't be more blunt huh Sei?" Cho looked around through out the crowd, though at times like this he wished he wasn't so short because he couldn't see anything. 'Why does this place have to be so crowded?'

"We're supposed to be trying to find Zone." Nida reminded them. "Anyone see him?"

Shadow seemed to have been the only one who could noticed who they were looking for, it wasn't hard for him, not with his sense of smell. "He's right there." Shadow stopped in the center of the sidewalk, nudging his head over to the left. The other 3 looked in that direction, and they could only see more people passing in the crowd, none of which who were Zone.

"You found me, not bad." An old man in a mildly used brown coat, with a cane, and gray hair and mustache stopped in front of them. He was hunched over lightly, walking with a small limp and depending heavily on the wooden cane that looked as if it came from weakness due to old age. He stood up strait, but almost right after he hunched over again, dropped the cane and clinched his stomach with both hands. "Ow, ow, ow...!"

Nida, being the closest, leaned over just enough to see the old man's down cast, squinted blue eyes, Zone's eyes. "Zone? That's really you?"

"Wow, that was pretty good." Cho ran over to the disguised Zone and looked over him, "I saw you but I had no idea who you were."

"That's because I'm a master of disguise." Zone lifted his head proudly, apparently he did have some useful talents. "Now keep it down, Galbadia is looking for me remember?" Zone, after having the pain pass, stood up strait again and reached into his pockets. His eyes shifted from side to side just to make sure no soldiers were looking in their direction, and then drew out a small, clear case with a small plug like deceives inside. "Here."

Nida, Seifer and Cho each took one, Nida and Seifer placed it in the ear of their choice while Cho looked at it, unsure of what it was exactly or what to do with it. "What's this?" Cho asked, flipping it around in his hand.

"Ear pieces." Zone said, placing one of them inside of his left ear, and only when he did that did he notice a small strand of blue hair was sticking out behind his ear. Though nearly undetectable you couldn't be to careful. "My guys back on the train can track you and tell you what to do from that." Zone knelt down next Shadow with another ear piece in his hand "Don't bite me ok?"

Shadow rolled his eyes. "Just get it over with." He closed his eyes and let Zone pull his ear a little and plug it with the device. It felt a little strange, but he could ignore it. "What are we supposed to be doing?"

"It's simple." Zone placed the empty case back into his pocket "Watts did some tracking last night, we found exactly where the second backup, unfortunately it's in the President's Mansion. And security isn't exactly lax around there, so it's going to take some doing to get in. One of my guys also did some surveying last night, we found the places where security is the weakest."

"Where is that?" Nida asked. "Someplace in the back?"

Zone shook his head "Nope. It's the place where no one will ever expect, the front gate. They would will never think some one would ever be stupid enough to try and get in that way--"

"My thoughts exactly." Seifer snorted "Your crazy."

Zone smiled, "Crazy like a fox, I'll create a distraction somewhere near the back so you guys can sneak in. Then Watts will guide you from the train, but for the most part you guys will have to of course avoid being seen and if you come against any soldiers, you'll have to take them out quickly so they won't alert anyone of your whereabouts. And don't worry about getting lost or going down the wrong path, we have all kinds of maps of this place."

"It sounds workable, as long as we don't get caught..." Nida folded his arms and looked up, there weren't as many details as he would have like there to be, but he knew Zone had his crew handling a lot of things and didn't want to worry them with little things. "But what about Cameras?"

Zone pointed to himself "Leave that to me, I can take them off line since they are connected to the primary power, take that out and they go down too. But you'll only have 13 minutes exactly to get in and out before they are connected to the auxiliary generator and go back up. That shouldn't be too hard for SeeDs like you."

"That's cutting it a little close." Seifer said, "And what happened to Matthew?"

"Back with Watts, we couldn't let the train stay here, it would be too obvious. It's circling around outside Deling, but that's why we have to keep a tight schedule. It's going to come back at 7:58, that's 6 minutes after you get out of the mansion so don't be late." Zone emphasized that, looking around again and noticing a few solders were starting to glance their way. "You guys have 3 minutes to get ready and meet me near Deling's mansion." He told them quickly before walking on in to the crowds past them.

Nida looked at his teammates. "Anyone need to do something, we might not have the chance for a while after this." He gained a negative response from the both of them. "Alright then. I need to head to the junk shop, Cho you go to the general store and pick up a few things, and Seifer you can just head down to the meeting location with Shadow if you want."

! - ! - !

"I can't stand this." Matthew pounded his head against the control room wall, he was so frustrated with the whole situation he couldn't stand it. He felt it welling up in him so strongly that he could barely control himself, it was killing him. "Why didn't you guys wake me up! I wanted to come."

"I'm sorry Matt, but it's too dangerous, I couldn't assign you to something like this." Watts said in a pleading manner, he had to make him understand.

"Too dangerous!" Matthew shouted "Everything is always too dangerous, I haven't been able to do anything. does all my training mean nothing? I'm not that weak."

"Matthew." Watts scolded "How many times do I have to tell you that you need to know when to control yourself. Sure you maybe able to handle a few solders but can you imagine how many are in Deling, all of them looking for you. I'm just trying to protect you, your only still a 9yr old kid after all."

Matthew sighed and dropped his head, every time Watts scolded him he couldn't help but feel bad, mainly since he didn't do it often. Watts was always the nicest out of every one of the crew members, he could never possibly let a punishment stand or anything of that nature, and he gave him a lot more leniency then anyone else. "I know but... I could have helped at lest since I'm the one who broke the first Backup. Please, let me do something..."

Watts placed his hand on Matthew's shoulder and knelt down next to him "I know how you feel but they'd spot you in a second. It's for the best. Besides, Zone and the others can handle themselves. It's a sneaking mission, anymore people and it would have been a hassle."

"Ok..."

Something started beeping... "Watts, we got a problem!" The man in front of the radar screen turned around in his chair and looked back at the two "We got something heading in our direction, a lot of somethings."

! - ! - !

Nida looked over his new handguns, no longer just plan pistols but M29s with long black tubes attached to the barrels, silencers. They weren't particularly more powerful then what he had before, but they were quicker and more accurate. "I chose this since it might help with the mission." And since they were the loudest weapons out of the group's besides the explosives Zone had used before.

"I guess so." Thinking about that made Cho glance back at the rod on his back, it was protruding above his shoulders just above his neck.

"We should go if we plan to infiltrate this facility." Shadow indicated the large mansion behind the black gates, "We will only draw attention to ourselves by staying here."

"Spiky's right." Seifer agreed, though getting an angry growl from Shadow at the remark "What are we waiting for."

"Zone told us he would give a signal." Nida looked down at his watch, pausing for a moment "It should be coming right about--" The last of his words were cut off by the sound of a loud explosion, exclaimed by the eruption of flames that rolled up the left side of the mansion. They could see the guards at the gate look back, followed by voices of men hurrying toward the source. Another loud explosion sent flames up the concrete wall to the left of the gates, prompting the two men on duty outside to open the gates and find out the cause of the disruption themselves. "That's it, come on, before the gate closes!"

Cho and Seifer shot forward toward the closing gates, Shadow running ahead of them to scout the area before the other's got there. Of course the guards he saw were all heading in the direction of the raging flames, so he waved them onward with his paws before heading for the large pair doors serving as an entrance. The wolf's body seem to drop down into the ground leaving him nothing more then a shadow on the concrete surface, then he slipped under the doors.

On the other side two men were about to exit since they were stationed right behind the doors. "What the hell is that!" One of the men yelled, stopping so abruptly that he nearly fell in front of a reforming Shadow. Shadow didn't give them a chance to speak any farther and raise any actions that would alert others. Instead of reforming into his usual body Shadow stayed a shapeless mass and protruded a wall of long spikes from his body. He caught them off guard, penetrating them in numerous places enough to take them both down in one attack.

Shadow, now completely reshaped, thrust one last spike out from his forehead directly in-between the doors, smashing through the lock and letting them swing open. "Good job Shadow." Nida stood by the door, waving Seifer and Cho in before closing the doors behind them. "Now we have get to the basement." he whispered.

! - ! - !

Zone looked away from the door, able to see that his distraction worked after he spotted the SeeDs making their way inside, but he didn't want to draw his new found attention to them. He now was at the side of the building next to a few steel crates, a parked Galbadian SUV of the same variety of the ones that attacked them the day before. There were 4 Galbadia solders in blue uniforms before him and more insight coming his way. 'Time to get out of here!'

With the sight every power line that had been attached and any sources of power to the building on fire burned into his head, Zone turned around towards the way he got in, expecting to get out but instead finding 2 more soldiers behind him. 'Oh man, I took too long!' Zone's face immediately dropped, this was really going to be hard! 'I'll just have to fight me way out...oh man I'm not a fighter!' "Watts, I have a problem."

"We might have a potential problem ourselves." Watts called back "I'm sorry Zone, I don't think there is anything I can do at this point."

"I thought so...ow!" Zone cringed, holding his stomach with one hand while drawing a grenade from his inventory. He pulled the pin out with his teeth and tossed it over his shoulder towards the pair at his back. Another eruption of flames blasted outward, throwing the four soldiers out of the rising blast on to their backs a few feet away. He had been too busy watching them that he didn't notice the two in front of him until the edge of a gunblade was slashed across his stomach and the sporadic fire of another gunblade shooting the gun portion of it into his chest. Zone stumbled back. 'Damn that hurt!'

! - ! - !

"Zone's in trouble?" Nida inquired, overhearing the conversation on his own earpiece. He lead the group down a red carpeted hallway that lay directly behind the front door, becoming nervous every time he saw a dead camera hanging from the walls. There were so many doors, also making him nervous since someone could come out at any moment. "And what's the problem on your end?"

"Don't worry about him." Watts reassured, "If there's anything he's good at it's running away, and we haven't had a real problem yet... Wait, you see the door on your left?" Watts asked. Nida glanced to his left, it was the last door before the hallway opened into a large white marble furnished living room on the left side and a summarily decorated dining room on the right. Between them was a stairwell that lead to the back wall of the mansion, then spilt into two directions, left and right to some unknown places. "There is a stairwell there, you have to go down to the basement. Remember, time limit."

Nida reached out and twisted the knob on the oak door, which was locked. "Locked, your up Shadow." Nida stepped to the side, waiting as the GF once again drove a thin, black spike outward from his forehead and through the door. Drawing the sound of startled voices from the other side. "Alright guys, better get ready."

Cho glanced over to Shadow, taking the metal rod off of his back while asking "Ready?" Shadow nodded, his body fading from existence like it always had done when junctioning with the boy. "Better to catch them by surprise huh?" He narrowed his eyes impishly as he drew the rod back with both hands and thrust it into the door. It was knocked off it's broken lock from the impact and flew open, smashing in to the wall on the other side. Revealing a rather long flight of stairs surrounded by blandly panted white walls, white tiled floor and florescent lights. Also there were two blue uniformed Galbadian soldiers waiting on the other side, a set of red unformed Commanders behind them.

"We have to get rid of them quickly, we only have 10 minutes left." Nida told them, firing off the pair of guns at the front man solider on the left, one of the bullets struck the man in the shoulder, the second was blocked by his lifted gunblade. Cho held the staff under his arm, lifting the other arm towards the same solider with a fire spell. Combined with Nida's attack, the upward rush of flames were enough to take the man down, allowing the Commander behind him to take his place.

"I don't have time for this, why don't you guys just get out of my way." Seifer ran forward at the newly positioned Commander, jumping down 7 steps, landing directly before the man and slashing the Gunblade upward across his chest. With a loud grunt and a splatter of spilled blood the Commander tumbled down the stairs, easily defeated by Seifer's strength.

The second Commander took his place side by side with the solider, and with a small nod they both attacked at the same time. The solider ascended a few stairs, lifted his foot and kicked Nida directly in the stomach, forcing him to stumble back, then gave him a quick jab in the chest with the sword. A very damaging attack, drawing a surprised cry of pain from him. While that was happening the last Commander started the machine guns on his wrist and fired two trails of bullets up the stairs, targeting, and into Cho. Cho was knocked back by their force, sending his body sprawling backwards on the ground.

'Are you alright?' Shadow asked. 'That attack took a lot out of you, you should use a healing spell.'

'Yeah, I got it.'

Nida would have done just that for Cho, that was if he had a GF. So in the interest of time he attacked, firing the dual guns into the solider and striking him directly in the chest. Cho, as much as he wanted to heal himself, also in the interest of time just panted his staff on the ground and pull himself up, Jumped at the same solider directly afterwords. From the air he pulled the staff above his head with both hands clinching one edge of it tightly and thrust it down on to his head, the solider was thrown back, tumbling down the stairs out of commission. "I guess that last guy is mine." Seifer drew the blade back to his side, strafing forward down a few stairs and thrust it into Commander's stomach, then pulled it upward out of the man's body in a strong uppercut. Easily taken down by one hit from Seifer.

"Your really strong Seifer." Cho lifted his arm again, in the process of casting a spell on himself now that the battle was over. "Cure."

"Damn right."

! - ! - !

Zone fell to his knees, blood streaming down from his forehead and drizzling on to the gray concrete below him, he could see it easily now that most of the sun was over the horizon. His arms and chest were covered in open wounds from swords and bullets of soldiers. He was panting heavily, and to add insult to injury he felt a cramp forming in his stomach. "Damnit..."

Biggs, back in red Commanders uniform after seemingly being fired, kicked Zone in the back and pushed him down to the ground with his foot. "You Timber Owls have been an annoyance for way too long, you almost got me demoted again! You know how hard it was to get this job back! Now where is the kid?"

Zone laughed weakly in a mocking manner, not that he found anything particularly funny "The hell if I'm going to tell you." That only earned him a sharp pull upward by his hair from Biggs. His head was tugged off the ground roughly, just high enough for Biggs to kneel down and place his mouth by Zone's ear

"Look, my job is on the line, I'm going to get it out of you one way of another." Biggs let go of his hair and pulled him off the ground by the collar of his shirt. He motioned a few of the surrounding men towards him. "Take him inside and get an answer out of him. Any means necessary, we need to find that kid. "

Zone's eyes widened, he didn't care if they found got him now, he had to warn Watts and the others, if they got the ear piece off him they would be able to track the train. "Watts! Change the frequency now! Take them off!-- Urhgaaaa!"

! - ! - !

"Zone! Zone!" Watts shouted into the headset, pushing the mic closer to his mouth. "Can you hear me?" Watts pounded his fist down on the control panel before him tossing the headset aside. "Damn, they got Zone. Change the frequency, now!"

"But Watts, what about the SeeDs?" One of the men asked.

"They're SeeDs, they'll mange." Watts sighed.

"Wait a minute...that thing we saw on radar earlier." The same man said. "We've got ground vehicles and aircrafts coming from the west, and that call signal, it's those same people from before."

"Those guys that want to kill me?" Matthew asked.

"Yeah, they're heading for Deling. And we're right in their path."

Watts shook his head, things just weren't going his way. "Warn the SeeDs then change the frequency before Galbadia tracks it."

"Wait!" Matthew pushed himself in front of Watts, "What about Zone? He doesn't know."

"I know, but we'll have to get out of here before they spot us." Watts's hands were tied, he had to get Matthew to safety. "Head for the transcontinental tunnel, we should be out of range there."

"That's too far! How are they going to catch up with us?" Matthew cried.

"We'll figure something out, but right now we have to move."

"But Zone--"

"They know he knows where you are so they wont kill him, we'll find a way to rescue them but right now--"

Matthew pounded his head against the wall again, this was happening because of him, all of this was happening for him. "No, no no..."

! - ! - !

"What's going on?" Cho pulled the ear piece out of his ear and looked at it, he Nida and Seifer were standing in a completely white hallway under the mansion, not far from the stairs they had just descended. He had to admit that there were quite a few halls, and with no support to navigate them they were only wandering aimlessly and getting into fights. "What happened to Zone?"

"I don't know." Seifer shrugged, "But didn't you hear Watts, somethings coming. That's all he said before the damn thing cut off, somethings going on. I have a bad feeling about this one. Do you think we should pull out of this, I mean we are in dangerous territory here."

"Hmm..." Nida lifted his hand to his chin and tilted his head upward, thinking... "We still have 5 minutes, I think we can make it since we can't be that much farther." Nida looked ahead of him, the hall split into two paths. "We'll split up in to two groups, Cho and I will take the left and you and Shadow can take the right, it'll be faster."

Shadow unjunctioned himself, appearing by Seifer's side, and the two immediately ran to the right with haste. By then Cho was ahead of Nida and had taken off down the left hall...It didn't take long for him to come to the end where a door laid, a metal door that was locked. Nida, finally catching up with the boy, attempted to shoot the lock, which didn't work. "Ok...how do we open this door?" Nida asked himself.

"We don't have time to open the door." Cho shook his head, pointing to a vent above it. "I'm small enough to fit in to that vent, I can just climb through and unlock the door."

Nida thought about it for a moment...what other choice did he have? "Fine, just be careful." Nida knelt down just enough for Cho to climb on to his shoulders, then lifted the boy up to the vent's level. Cho held on to Nida's head until he found his balance, then pulled the vent's casing off and climbed inside.

! - ! - !

"Your just looking for a small metal..." Seifer paused, why explain to Shadow, just tell him to open the door. "You know what, just break the lock and I'll find it."

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

Zone let his head drop weakly, he didn't bother to struggle, it was useless. His hands were handcuffed behind his back to a table, his back pressed against the table leg and his legs crossed on the ground before him. His arms hurt like hell, and was pretty sure that his arms being twisted behind his back made the bleeding worse. The bleeding that was making him light headed, and soaked his white clothing in red. 'Looks like they're going to let me bleed to death.'

He just closed his eyes, hoping to just sleep and ignore the pain. He was on his way...until he heard a sound. 'Huh?' Zone opened his eyes and lifted his head, though the room was dark and he could barely see anything, there were small emergency lights on the wall from when he cut the power. From the red haze he could see a small cage in front of him, a pet travel cage. 'What?'...He could see something small inside, something white... 'What is that?'

Kewk, Keeewk...

"A Chocobo?" Zone peered into the cage, only when the figure moved could he see the small yellow beak and the rest of it's white feathered form. It was a small white Chocobo, and it looked sad and weak. "Aww...Hey little guy..."

The Chocobo mewed and looked away from him, fear evident in the flicker of it's he saw eyes. "Hey, don't be scared, I'm not going to hurt you." Zone said, maybe the blood was doing it, he probably did look a little scary right now...Zone cringed and keeled over lightly, "Owww...Cramp"

The little bird turned it's head towards him suspiciously "Kewk..."

"Heh heh, your a nice little guy aren't you?" Zone opened one eye and smiled as the pain started to fade slowly. "See, I won't hurt you." He coaxed. The little Chocobo stood up and came to the door of his cage, tilting his head to the side as he looked at Zone. Zone sighed. "They got you too huh..." Zone uncrossed his legs and stretched them outward with an idea in mind, his feet were just far enough to barely reach the sides of the cage, which he pressed between them and gently pulled the container closer to him.

The bird squawked, falling backwards from the sudden shift. Zone laughed, "Ha ha, are you alright in there little guy?" Zone inquired, shifting the cage into his lap. Now that the bird was closer he could see how bad of a shape it was in, and he was sure that one of it's wings were injured by the way it held it to it's side all the time. "Aww, they hurt you too huh. Those bastards, what could they possibly want with you. Why would anyone hurt a cute little guy like you?"

"Kewk, Kewk!" The white Chocobo seemed a little more friendly with him now, Zone didn't look so scary when he was looking down on him with those blue eyes, smiling, though it did look sad when the man winched in pain every time blood got in his eyes or he moved the wrong way. Seeing the nice man hurt made him said, he was the nicest person he'd seen since...ever.

"Ow...Don't worry about me little guy." Zone forced himself to smile again, "I'm alright now, but I might not be when those soldier guys come back."

"Kewk...Kewk..." The white Chocobo pressed his head against the cage. "Wok!" The little Chocobo jumped up as far as the cage would let him, his body started to sparkle, causing Zone's body to glow with a light green.

"Whoa! Was that a cure spell?" Zone started to feel a little better... "Your amazing little guy... you know what, I'll give you a name, better yet, I'll get you out of here. How does that sound?" The small bird squawked happily and Zone nodded "Alright little...Tire!...no that's stupid...Guy!... Wait, I got it, Hikaru, you look like a Hikaru...no I think that's taken..." Zone paused... "You know, you look like you've been down here for a while, and your probably hungry and thirsty and injured. But your still alive...I'll call you Phoenix!..." Zone leaned down closer to the cage "(Pssst, you know truth is I always wanted to all something Phoenix, we could have been the Timber Phoenixes but noooo.) Yeah, I'll call you Phoenix, Enix for short. Like that?"

The small bird let out another Kewk, another happy one. "Alright little Enix, got another one of those spells in you?" Zone asked. He was responded with another sweep of a green light over his body from Cure spell, causing Enix to pant from fatigue and lost stamina on account of injury "Thanks a lot. Don't worry, I'm going to get you out of here." With enough of the pain dulled to move his arms around, Zone drew his legs up so his feet were planted on the ground and pressed his back against the table leg firmly.

Hugging the metal table's appendage with the chains of the handcuffs, Zone pushed himself up just enough to press the bottom of his head against the edge of the table and push upward. Even though the edge was digging into his head, drawing blood, the table was heavy, and his torso was throbbing from forced strain, Zone merely grimaced with a groan or two and kept forcing himself to keep pushing upward. 'Urrrggggg!' After about 30 seconds of pushing as hard as he could, he managed to lift the side of the table a few inches off the ground, just enough to drop his hands and slip the handcuff chains underneath it. Setting himself free...

Zone lost balance and fell back on to the ground, free, his hands bound behind him, but free none the less. He sat up, climbing to his feet and then turning around. "Thanks little guy, now let's see if I can..." Zone sat down, though unable to see what he was doing he felt around the cage door for the handle with his finger and shifted it around when he found it. "Locked...Hmm, There has to be a key around here somewhere." Zone stumbled on to his feet again, starting to glance around the dark, hazy red room for a key.

"Hold on Enix, there has to be a key around here somewhere." Zone walked into the darkness of the room, gaining a sad whine from Enix still in the cage. "Don't worry, I'll be right back." Zone could be heard shifting around, followed by the clack of metal falling, lots of metal falling. There was silence for a few seconds after that, and then a small laugh as the smiling, blood covered, blue eyed man came back in to view with two sets of small keys in his mouth, one smaller then the other.

Zone let himself fall on to him stomach in front of the cage door, then dropped the taller key on the ground and then tilted his head to the side. He pushed the key into the lock and turned his head back until he heard the click he was waiting for. Zone's smile grew wider as he rolled over on to his back and sat up, turning his back to open the door with his hands, releasing Enix. "See, I told you I'd get you out." Zone leaned back just enough to pick up the second key, twisting it in his fingers and attempting to place it in the small hole on the left cuff.

Enix made out off the cage with a loud chirp, happy to be out of the dark confinement...in to a dark room, but it was better then the cage. Apparently injured and barely able to walk, though the extent of the injuries were unknown, a few cure spells over time had helped a little.

He became silent when he heard the soft grunts of pain coming from a struggling Zone, then a small curse and the ching of metal falling. "Damnit!" Zone shouted, feeling around for the lost key. Enix looked at Zone's hands, he appeared to be reaching for that key that he kept missing, so Enix picked up the key with his beak and dropped it in Zone's hands. "Thanks." Zone again shifted it around into the lock and managed to twist it this time, releasing himself with a relaxed sigh. 'God that feels good...'

The first thing he did was pet Enix "Your really helpful Enix, why don't you come with me when you get out of here?" Zone smiled, rubbing his back. "How does that sound?" He gained another happy Kewk from the Chocobo, he also could tell which spots hurted from the responses he gained when he touched certain spots. "Great." Zone lifted his finger to his mouth "But you'll have be really quiet ok. We--"... Zone froze...he heard a loud sound coming from the walls, a thumping sound.

Even more to his surprise, Cho fell out of a vent in the ceiling with a loud clatter, landing on the ground a few feet away in the darkness. Darkness that turned into light when the lights themselves came back on, they were in a storage room. "Cho!" Zone scurried over to the fallen boy, pulling a vent cage off of him. "What are you doing here?"

"We had to split up, one of these rooms has the back up." Cho sat up, quickly pulling himself to his feet "Whoa, they really got you huh, are you ok?"

"Just a flesh wound, I'm more worried about him." Zone looked back towards Enix who was scared of the new arrival, especially with such a loud entrance. "It's ok, come here..." Zone coaxed the small bird toward him, who upon seeing it was ok approached the two. "Look at him, he's hurt, you know about Chocobos, help him out."

Cho looked over the small bird. "He's in bad shape, just from here I can see that he's dehydrated and half staved, look at his feathers, they're about to fall off, his beak is starting to lose color. And look at the way he's holding his wings clutched to him, it's probably injured, and his legs too...no, the way he's walking is from sharp blows to the stomach, knowing this place it was probably being hit a lot. And look at the feathers between it's legs, it was probably being kicked there the most." Cho told him stoically.

Zone was amazed, Cho hadn't even gotten close to the bird. "You can tell all of that just by looking?"

"I know Chocobos, they don't call me Cho for nothing." Cho eased himself closer to the small Chocobo, showing that he wouldn't hurt it, rubbing under his chin with his fingers. "I can't do anything for him here, and besides, something big is happening, Watts said something was coming our way right before he cut out."

"...I told him to change the frequency when I got captured." Zone picked up Enix, holding him lightly in his arms carefully to avoid hurting the soar spot on Cho pointed out on his wing and stomach. "But he didn't say anything about something happening...Damn, this mission went bad really quickly, we're already out of time. The Cameras are back on line...Where are Nida and Seifer...and Shadow?"

"We split up...oh man! We gotta get back!" Cho immediately ran towards the door upon the sounds of his own words, if the cameras were on then they knew where everyone-- Cho was knocked back as the suddenly opened steel door slammed into his face, throwing him back on the ground with the entrance of Galbadian soldiers. At lest 10 of them poured into the room, way more then Cho could handle on his own. Before they knew it, there was a brigade of them standing near the door.

Cho crawled backwards to Zone, standing by his side while two Commanders entered the room accompanying a man. This man had a gray suit on with a white shirt and black tie, combed back black hair and a cane. He walked slowly with a limp, relying heavily on the metal cane he was using, though he moved with a haste, surprisingly fast even keeping up with the Commanders. Zone was practically radiating furry when he saw him, he knew who he was. "Vinzer Deling." He snorted. "You came all the down here to see me? I'm honored you spineless bastard."

"And who are you that has the audacity to attack me? " Vinzer stopped face to face with Zone, leaning forward intimidatingly and staring him in the eye, forcing Zone to draw back a little from the unexpected intrepid Deling was showing. Though Vinzer had to lean upward slightly since the limp made him shorter.

"You know me! The Timber Owls!" Zone shouted. Enix tensed, seeing Zone so angry on account of this man.

"There are so many 'resistance groups' after Galbadia, some much more important then you will ever dream of being. Why would I know some no names like you?" Vinzer stared piercingly up at Zone, who was shaking with anger. Vinzer was apparently a lot bolder now, he no longer had his guards doing things for him infact he immediately had come face to face with Zone, dangerously close.

"The hell you don't Deling! You should be dead." Zone growled.

"I don't have time for this, who ever the hell you are."

"Zone! You know my name!"

"Whatever Mr. Zone or whoever the hell you are." Vinzer said discardingly "I'll be frank, tell me where Matthew is now."

"Heh, I guess I'm pretty important to you now." Zone laughed in his face, making sure he leaned forward to emphasis himself, bringing himself less then an inch away from touching the man "I guess my name and my organization just became a lot more memorable since a dead man came all the way down here to see me. Oh and no you ass hole."

Vinzer glanced back at his men, then looked Zone strait in the eye "You have a sharp tongue for someone in your position, you should watch your mouth!" Deling punch him in the face with his right arm not holding the cane. Zone was knocked off his feet across the air, crashing into the wall a few feet away, and before they could even begin to wonder about the nature of that strength. Enix jumped out of Zone's hands and flew directly at Vinzer, driving into his forehead with his beak hard enough to make him bounce back from the force and be caught by Zone again.

"You bastard!" Zone ran at Vinzer, only to be grabbed by a few soldiers and pushed into the same wall. Cho, who tried the same thing, was thrown next to him.

Vinzer lifted his hand to his forehead and dipped his fingers in to a sticky fluid that was flowing down. He was bleeding, and quite a good amount too from Enix's attack, an injured Chocobo who got mad because Zone was hit. Vinzer pushed a man out of his way and stood face to face with Zone, who was still being held by two blue uniformed soldiers. "Where is Matthew?"

"Why do you want him?" Zone asked, still holding a tight grip around Enix just in case someone got any ideas of trying to take him. "Why are you after him?"

"It's none of your concern." Vinzer said, he paused for a moment afterwords. "I'm sure you've been also having problems with another sort of people." An interesting term he used for these people he referred too. "You know who I'm talking about, Gcom. The Galbadian Counter Offensive Movement."

"Gcom?" Zone squinted questioningly, Is that what they were called?

"Those people who want to kill Matthew, don't tell me you don't even know they're names?" Vinzer looked at a clueless Zone, he didn't know "Your even more insolent then I thought, if you don't even know that then you don't have any idea what your in the middle of. At this rate you and your Timber Owls along with Matthew will end up causalities, tell me where he is."

Zone grunted from the pain in his arms and shoulders that were being held "What do you want with him?"

"To protect him! That boy is important, it's amazing that you've managed to stay alive this long... These are powerful people, they will kill all of you in including Matthew and wont stop until they do. Just let us protect the boy, I will let you go no strings attached. We can forget this little...insurrection."

"And what will happen when I do?" Zone asked suspiciously. "Your full of it Deling! I'm not stupid. There are two reasons you wouldn't let me come out of this alive, one, no one is supposed to know your alive, I do. And two, I'm the head of a Galbadian Resistance force, you know I would keep coming after you since your running a tyranny over cities like Timber!"

"Have it your way Mr. Zone." Vinzer turned around, walking away with an angry air about him and a quickness in his step as he straddled the cane in his clinched left fist and held his bleeding head with the other. "You pull something like this, defy my leadership, oppose me and your arrogant enough to attack me and think I'm going to let you get away with it. I am Vinzer Deling, and show you what it means to trifle with me. Kill both of the runts and find out Matthew's ware bouts. I want that damn kid." He called back, slamming the steel door shut behind him.

"Uh Zone, you got a plan?" Cho glanced over towards Zone, feeling a gunblade pressed to his neck. "Cause it's not looking too..." Cho's eyes shifted upward and he paused mid-sentence at a walling sound from above, then a shaking...Everything was shaking.

A blue armored soldier burst into the room, panting heavily. "We're under attack! It's Gcom!"

As soon as he got the words out the ceiling fell through, sending a wave of fire down into the storage room.