"Get your butt over here! I'm trying to talk to you!" Zack yelled, slamming his hands against the glass that kept him captive. Professor Hojo ignored him, tapping away at his computer as if nothing was wrong.
Zack looked over at the capsule beside his where Cloud was. Although he was standing upright, he was unconscious. With a sigh, Zack turned back to look over at Hojo again.
"Get us out of here!" Zack yelled. Hojo stood up and headed for the door. "Hey! Are you listening?" The door opened and closed and Zack stepped back slightly in the capsule, the shock of being left alone in Hojo's lab settling in. Would they ever get out, or would Hojo leave them there forever?
Zack slammed against the capsule again, yelling aloud. Time and time again his fists hit the glass. It was hard, as his body was also weighed down from the mako that surrounded him, but he didn't stop.
"Doesn't anyone know we're down here!?" Zack shouted, continuing to pound the glass. He was quickly weakening and could feel it. His fist came towards the glass again and he paused, before taking a deep breath filled with mako and bringing his fist back before colliding it with the glass for the last time.
There was a split-second delay before the glass broke. The capsule de-pressurised and the mako rushed for the exit, pulling Zack with it forcefully. He was thrown onto the floor, mako sloshing around him.
"Hey!" the door swung open and a ShinRa guard entered, searching for the cause of the disruption. His eyes landed on Zack and widened in shock. "What the-"
Zack slowly pushed himself up, his legs slightly wobbly now that they didn't have mako all around to support them. He looked up at the guard and narrowed his eyes.
"Uh, excuse me, y-you need to.." the guard stumbled over his words, glancing between Zack and the capsule he had just broken out of.
"What? You want me to get back in?" Zack spat. "Sorry buddy, but I don't think so." Being careful not to injure the man, Zack knocked him out. Hurrying over to Cloud's capsule, he pulled the lever that was on the outside. The mako drained out and then it slid open. Cloud's unconscious body fell forwards and Zack quickly moved forwards to catch him.
"Come on, we're gonna make it." Zack mumbled.
"Excuse me?" Rufus Shinra asked, spinning in his chair to face the person that was speaking.
"It's just a few extra tests that I want to do," Hojo repeated. "With the right amount of-"
"No, I mean, who did you say you wanted to use as a test subject?" Rufus corrected.
"Ah, Cloud Strife." Hojo said.
Reno and Rude were standing at the side of the room and exchanged a worried glance. Did Hojo know that Cloud's parents had been investigating him?
"The trainee?" Rufus asked.
"Yes." Hojo nodded his head. Rufus sat in his chair, thinking it over for a minute.
"He's not even a SOLDIER." Rufus said thoughtfully. "Why do you want to do tests on him?"
"Sir, he has already proven to be remarkable. He survived the poison of the beast in the forest; such an accomplishment!" Hojo said excitedly.
"Yes he did," Rufus nodded. "But are you sure he'd be able to withstand the sorts of things you're planning on doing?"
"If you don't mind me saying, Sir, there's only one way to find out." Hojo replied.
"Yes, you're correct I suppose. Well then, you have my-" An alarm sounded throughout the building and Rufus' eyes went wide and he stood up. "Reno, Rude! Find out what's going on immediately!" Rufus shouted at the two. With quick nods of the head, the Turks left and hurried to find out what was going on.
"Uh, Sir? May I do the experiments?" Hojo questioned.
Ignoring the question, Rufus turned to him. "Get out there and see what you can do. I want you also to report back to me on what's happening."
Hojo stared at his superior and a slight look of disgust crossed his face before he inclined his head and walked out stiffly.
The alarm continued sounding and Rufus sat down again, confident that everything would be all right now that he had sent three people to find out what was going on and everyone else in the building was scrambling around frantically also.
The first person to get information to Rufus, however, was the head of the SOLDIER division, Lazard.
"Sir, a SOLDIER and a trainee have escaped the scientific labs." Lazard explained, slightly out of breath.
"What?" Rufus asked.
"They've already left the building, though we did manage to communicate with them for a moment."
"And?"
"They've said they don't want to come back, Sir."
"Why don't they want to come back?"
Lazard sighed, "They said they didn't want to be used in a, 'mad scientist's crazy experiment', as they put it." he quoted. There were rushed footsteps coming down the hall and Hojo appeared around the door frame. Lazard stepped back slightly.
"Sir! My.. my lab!" Hojo stuttered.
"Let me guess, you're missing something?" Rufus asked, one eyebrow raised.
"N-no.. my lab.. they've destroyed it!" Hojo had gone into hysterics, tears welling up in his face as he struggled to contain his distress.
"What do you mean?" Rufus asked.
"Cloud Strife and Zack Fair have ruined my lab! They've broken everything!" Hojo yelled. "I bet Strife was the one that suggested it!" he fought the urge to throw something, beginning to shake from the shock of what had happened.
"Please, calm down." Rufus said. "I'm sure everything can be replaced."
"No! It can't! All my experiments, all the data, it's all gone!" he shouted. Lazard glanced at Hojo and then over at where Rufus had an extremely calm expression on his face.
"Sir! Two SOLDIER's have escaped!" Reno said, running up and trying to get through the door.
"You're too late, Reno. I've already been informed." Rufus said. "And wasn't it one SOLDIER and a trainee?" he glanced over at Lazard for confirmation and looked back at Reno after getting a nod.
"Uh, sorry Sir." Reno said, sloppily pulling into attention. Rude appeared beside him and also stood at attention, though his hands were behind his back and not in his pockets like Reno.
"Hmm," Rufus rubbed his chin thoughtfully and then nodded as if to himself. "Reno, Rude, I want the two of you to get out there and bring them back, understood?"
"Yes, Sir." the two spoke in sync.
"Good. Then you're dismissed to get on the job right away." Rufus said, waving a hand lazily. The two of them turned and left quickly and it was almost as if they had never been there. By now, Hojo had been able to get his emotions under control.
"Sir, if you don't mind I'd like to get back down to my lab to try and clean up a bit." he said.
"Sure." Rufus said absent-mindedly, already turning to Lazard again. "I want you to send out a whole team to help round up the two rebels, all right?"
"Yes, Sir." Lazard said. Hojo had paused in the doorway, listening to the last instruction that was given out. A small smirk appeared on his face and he continued walking. Before the SOLDIER's left for a mission they would have to get an extra dose of mako since the last time they'd gotten any was a while ago. Quickly, Hojo hurried down to his extra lab to prepare the dosages.
"Man, I wish we could've seen the look on his face! Ah well, the satisfaction is good enough for me." Zack chuckled.
"Keep it down back there! I thought ya said yer on the run." Zack had managed to thumb down a ride and he and Cloud were currently sitting in the back of a ute.
"Yeah, yeah," Zack shot back to the driver. "I'm nowhere near as loud as this piece of trash!" to emphasize his point, he slapped a hand against the side of the vehicle.
"Ya want off?" the driver asked. Zack laughed and shook his head, turning his attention to Cloud again.
"Maybe we'll go back there some day, buddy," Zack shrugged. "But not today." The ute lurched over an extra-bumpy spot and Zack winced, rubbing his back from where it had banged into the side. "I mean, all they'd do is listen to Hojo's whining and send us back down to the labs, so why bother?"
Cloud made an almost inaudible noise and Zack frowned, worried. He knew Cloud had never had any mako before so the sudden exposure to it was dangerous for the kid. It looked like he had mako poisoning, but Zack had never experienced anyone with that problem before so he didn't know what was a really bad case of it or a mild case of it.
"Spiky, what're you planning on doing in Midgar?" Zack asked, a cheeky grin on show. "How 'bout mercenaries, yeah?"
"I.." Cloud swallowed and his head lolled to one side. There was pain on his face and Zack's grin disappeared, replaced with concern.
"Hey, buddy, you don't have to try and talk." Zack said. The car went over another particularly bumpy spot and Cloud was thrown about ruthlessly. Zack glanced at Cloud again before standing up and leaning over to the driver. "Hey, any idea when we're gonna get there?" he asked.
"Nah, no clue. Stop askin', yeah?"
Zack rolled his eyes and shook his head with a laugh. He balanced himself on his feet and brought his arms above his head, stretching.
Something felt wrong.
Opening his eyes, Zack immediately saw the helicopter which was heading their way, though still far off. It took him a few seconds to decide what he was going to do and figure out that the tiny symbol on the tiny helicopter was in fact the ShinRa symbol. He figured they'd be coming to pick them up again and take them back to ShinRa, and he wasn't down with that.
It was when he was squatting down again to try and not be seen that he saw a familiar object being revealed at the side of the helicopter; a machine gun modified specifically for use in a flying metal craft.
"Cloud!" Zack acted in an instant, hurrying over to Cloud's side and pulling him away from the visible edge to hide. He could hear the helicopter now and glanced up to see that it had gotten closer rather quickly.
"This is yer stop!" the driver yelled, pulling the ute to an unexpected halt. He had seen the helicopter and the gun. "I ain't riskin' myself fer ya now that there's somethin' like that involved." Zack nodded and jumped to the ground, hurriedly pulling Cloud after him. The ute fired up again and drove off just as a couple of rounds of bullets dug up the ground behind it.
"C'mon!" Zack yelled, draping one of Cloud's arms around his neck and beginning to run towards the boulders that were just a few metres away. Putting Cloud down behind one, he glanced over his shoulder to see the helicopter heading past them and getting closer to the ground. "Darn, there must be more." he muttered.
Ruffling Cloud's hair, he took a deep breath and turned, walking off to meet the ShinRa operatives head on.
Cloud's vocal chords weren't obeying him as he tried to speak before Zack left. He managed to lift a hand, trying to get Zack's attention, but it was no use. Zack was determined, and Cloud had mako poisoning.
Though, Zack did pause in his walking to pull his phone out of his pocket and drop it on the ground before continuing on, and this was now Cloud's goal. He had to get to that phone.
Dragging himself forward as Zack disappeared from view behind some other boulders, he reached towards the phone with his hand and screwed his face up in annoyance when he felt his fingertips brush against it, accidentally knocking it further away.
His vision was going slightly blurry again, so with a final shove he managed to clutch the phone and then relaxed, resting his back against a boulder. He waited a few moments, catching his breath and trying to bring his vision back under control, before lifting the phone in front of his face and going to the contacts.
Aerith. Should he call her? But what would she be able to do? And weren't the Turks after her because she was an Ancient? Cloud shook his head slightly. There was always the possibility that they had found her, and calling her might only alert them to where he was hiding.
He continued through the list of contacts, many of them sparking no familiarity in his mind whatsoever. There must be someone on the list that could help them, right?
Cloud almost threw the phone from his hand in shock when it started to ring. He stared in horror as the name appeared on the screen to say who the call was from. Reno. Why did Zack even have Reno's number? He was a Turk.
Without knowing why, Cloud answered the call and slowly held the phone up to his ear. He didn't say anything, simply waiting for Reno to realise the call had been answered.
"Uh, hello? Zack?" Cloud heard Reno's cautious voice but still didn't answer. "Um, look, the President wants you two to get back here all right? If you don't come right away they said something about-"
"Reno." Cloud choked out.
"Strife? Where's Zack?" Reno asked.
"Can I.. trust you?" Cloud said, his voice straining on every word.
"Yeah, o' course!" Reno said hurriedly. "What's happened?"
"Was it.. you that shot at us?" Cloud questioned, trying to get as much information as possible.
"What? No! No one should be shooting at you!" Reno exclaimed.
"Someone did.. and Zack went off to," Cloud swallowed. "fight them."
"All right, where are you?" Reno asked.
"Boulders." Cloud mumbled. His eyes were feeling heavy again.
"Hang tight, we'll be there soon." Reno said, hanging up. Cloud hung up the phone and let it fall to the ground, his head dropping limply as he blacked out again.
Reno relayed what he knew to Rude and the two of them were quickly on their way over to where the boulders were known to be located. Reno and Zack were, in a way, friends. Whenever they ran into each other they would trade sarcastic remarks about how each was better than the other, but it was all in fun. Behind the competitive faces, they had become 'sort-of' friends.
"Gosh, you can see it a mile away." Reno mumbled, eyebrows furrowing slightly as he headed his helicopter towards where he could see the hundreds of normal ShinRa Soldiers all in battle positions on the boulders. They were all facing the same way, of course, and Reno could now also see Zack at the front with his buster sword in hand.
Swinging the helicopter around to the back of the ShinRa Soldiers, he switched on a radio and tuned it so that he could communicate with the other helicopter also flying nearby.
"This is Reeeno," Rude shot his partner a disapproving look but then turned away again as Reno smirked. "State your mission objective."
"We are not authorised to give out mission information to outside teams." came the reply.
"Look, you're not meant to shoot them." Reno said. "We're supposed to be bringing them back peacefully, only with the use of Soldiers if they disagree, and only to force them to come."
"We were given second orders once you left eagerly," the voice crackled through again. "They're wanted dead or alive."
"What kind of an idiot gave you those instructions?" Reno snapped angrily.
"Professor Hojo relayed them to us from the President himself."
"Yeah, there's your problem." Reno scoffed. Rude shot him another glare and he rolled his eyes. "Just leave it to me all right? If I can't get them out 'peacefully' you can do whatever you want. Agree?"
There was a pause before the voice answered, "All right. We'll give you five minutes." Reno hurriedly turned the radio off so that he could laugh aloud and began mumbling to his partner.
"They expect us to do it in five minutes? Only real brilliance can pull that off. Good thing we're real brilliance, ey? Well come on, we're wasting time just sitting here talking our heads off." Reno stretched and then took hold of the controls again, flying over the top of all the Soldiers towards where Zack was standing and holding his buster sword in front of him.
"You will have to tell him of our intentions." Rude said.
"Yeah, yeah. Getting to that." Reno said, waving a hand absent-mindedly at Rude.
Opening the side door of the helicopter, Reno positioned the large machine right above the first class SOLDIER and grabbed hold on Rude's arm so that he could hang almost upside down out of the helicopter without falling. Rude rolled his eyes and grabbed Reno's arm just to ensure his partner didn't actually fall. Besides, that would mean more paperwork.
"Hey, Zack!" Reno shouted. Zack flinched and he looked up, stumbling back slightly in shock at what he saw.
"Reno?" he asked. "We're not coming back so give up!"
"No, listen!" Reno persisted. "I've got less than five minutes to get you to co-operate and if you don't they're gonna kill you! Climb aboard, we'll find your buddy and get outta here."
"I told you, we're not going back!" Zack replied firmly.
"No you idiot, and I'm not taking you back!" Reno said, annoyance in his voice. "They think I'm gonna take you back which is why you're safe with me. If you want I'll take you to where your girlfriend is being hidden."
"What? You're hiding Aerith from ShinRa?" Zack asked, absolutely and completely gobsmacked.
"Yes you idiot! Now climb aboard before they open-fire!" Reno signalled to Rude, who pulled him up into his seat properly again before taking the helicopter down closer to the ground. Zack swung his sword back onto his back and reached up to pull himself into the helicopter. "Sorry it's such a tight fit." Reno said as he shoved Zack into the back of the aircraft.
The pilot of the other helicopter raised an eyebrow and rolled his eyes with an annoyed sigh.
"Reno actually pulled it off? Those Soldiers are gonna go mad if they don't get to kill anything." His partner nodded in agreement.
"I know I shouldn't have, but I saw Professor Hojo putting something with the mako to make them like this."
"Hmm, I had a feeling he was up to something. His entire lab had been smashed and he was looking happy, it just didn't match up. Oh well, you won't mention this to anyone will you? Anyone that crosses paths with that Professor ends up dead."
"Yeah, I know. I won't say a thing."
"Good."
"Where'd you leave Strife?" Reno asked, picking the helicopter off the ground again and glancing around to make sure the Soldiers weren't planning on making a surprise attack.
"Just around there, behind the huge boulder that looks like a... boulder." Zack shrugged. Reno chuckled and nodded, taking the helicopter around and landing again.
"Why'd you leave your phone with him?" Reno asked curiously.
"Huh? How'd you know? I just dropped it on the ground so it wouldn't get broken if I had to fight a lot." Zack said as he climbed out of the helicopter.
"I called and Cloud answered. That's how I found you so fast." Reno said.
"He's awake!?" Zack asked, his face lighting up in excitement. He ran over to where he'd left him and shoved his phone in his pocket, drooping a little when he saw that Cloud was still unconscious.
"Just hurry up and get him over here. They're gonna wonder why we landed again right behind the boulders." Reno called over.
"Yeah, coming." Zack said, scooping Cloud up and carrying him over to the helicopter. With the help of Reno and Rude, he was soon slumped in one of the back seats. "All right, let's go." Zack pulled himself in and Reno shut the door, starting the helicopter up again.
"So, to Aerith?" Reno asked.
"To Aerith." Zack nodded.