6 Hours Before Commencement Of Operation Gold Strike

It was finally time to move out.

Everyone had changed into their proper attire. Ragnar found himself stuffed into a New Shinra uniform, and over it wore a thick coat, pants, and boots. Ragnarok was not available to him readily, which made him somewhat nervous. Although both men wanted to take their swords, the only way they could do so was by putting them in secret compartments within a large military issue crate that the twenty would be taking with them. It was this that held the EMP Projector, as well as several other devices and weapons for the group. Instead, Ragnar found himself wielding an automatic weapon. He didn't feel too good about it, but neither did most of his friends. Aerith hadn't even been able to bring her staff. Tifa hated guns. Cloud hadn't shouldered one of these weapons since he was sixteen years old. Yuffie griped as she had to take up a rifle, and Barret snorted at the gun, the uniform he crammed his huge body into, and the fact that he had to conceal his mechanical hand beneath a glove. Only Vincent seemed alright…although he regarded the workmanship of his rifle with disdain.

The Wutai operatives had changed as well, and so had the spies that were present. All but two of them were shock troops, with basic name tags and not much in the way of decoration. Ragnar saw that his own name, to a bit of his embarrassment, was Pvt. Hamm. But with all of their helmets on and their coats zipped up, they looked pretty monolithic, especially with visor down. It was hard to tell what nationality any of them were, even the Wutai operatives. Two of the spies were the officers. Wuu was dressed in a heavy red overcoat and officer garb, accenting that she was the leader of their group. The other was a more decorated troop. He was their "second in command", a sergeant.

Packs and equipment were evenly distributed. The PPA people found themselves carrying some of the stuff for the other spies, but that was alright. Barret himself was designated with the biggest member of the Wutai side to carry the main crate. They were put into position, and quickly briefed with a few protocol orders that New Shinra troops were required to obey. Cloud seemed to be somewhat irritable when he had to strike various poses in military fashion, although Ragnar didn't know why… He was aware of most of these already. Once this was all done, they arranged themselves in ranks.

"Alright everyone." Wuu announced from the front. "This is it. From here on until we reach our point in the New Shinra HQ Dome, we need to act like a New Shinra unit. It's a long hike, so I hope you're rested up. We can't afford to stop. Let's move out."

Despite his training, Ragnar found himself rather tired hours later, as he winced again to avoid a gust of wind smacking him in the face with ice crystals.

Their twenty-man team looked rather pathetic at this point. Half frozen and wandering in the dark, occasionally being blasted by clouds of snow, they weren't much to brag about. At this point, wetness and cold had pierced every opening left on Ragnar's body. His nose and ears were completely numb, and his face was being blasted raw. He wasn't alone. Everyone else looked rather weather beaten and cold. Aerith was clearly struggling the most, seeming to have trouble at points putting one foot in front of the other. Luckily, she had managed to stay solid until now…when they could afford to start looking weak.

It had been the longest three hours of Ragnar's life. During that time, in pitch black darkness, occasionally struck by gale force winds smacking them with frost, the twenty people had hiked across the vast snow plains between the landing site and the Dome. Trudging through the snow got worse as they went on, and it deepened to two feet. They had to force their way through it as they kept moving. It wasn't encouraging that they seemed to endlessly march into the dark. It gave the impression that they weren't going anywhere. They soon began to sag under their packs and weapons, and that only made things worse. Even burly Barret could barely hold the crate at points. It was practically a death march to Ragnar…and he wondered if they were getting anywhere, or if they would start collapsing before they did.

However, that changed soon enough.

At long last, the soldiers began to see lights further on the horizon. They were dim and small, but as they neared they saw them more clearly and distinctly. They eventually began to make out what they had to be. Far in front of them, filling the deep, snow-covered basin for miles, were tiny lights. Each one was only a singular point in the darkness, but they were there. As they continued to trudge forward, the nearest ones began to get closer. Ragnar knew what these were. They were the same lights he had anxiously watched for over a year ago when fleeing from this area on the snowmobile. They were lights from the outposts.

At this point, Wuu had stopped them long enough to quickly find the appropriate point. After she did so, she began to lead them forward again…this time to one light in particular. It was to this that they were now headed…moving to soon enact another phase of their operation.

Ragnar was already tired and cold…but now nervousness began to spring up. Over the course of this long, frozen march, the thoughts of the strange assailant and Sephiroth had been pushed to one side of his brain. He focused more on the upcoming mission instead. And now…that began to grow far more distinctive in his mind. As the twenty slowly marched forward to one of the lights, Ragnar watched it the whole time and slowed down his breathing. Although he could still see little in the darkness, he knew that it was getting closer…and he knew that as they walked they were slipping into binocular range. Night vision, most likely. As a result, Wuu began to wave ahead to the outpost. This caused Ragnar to tense. What would it be now? As they neared…would they be shot on sight? Or given a berth?

As such, the youth nearly leapt when he heard a signal from the radio up ahead, putting in a call. However, the spies were calm. Wuu drew out her radio and waved ahead as she did so. As she clicked it on, Ragnar heard words come through from the other side.

"Identify yourselves."

"Field Platoon ARC34. Conducting military field exercises. Our GPS is malfunctioning. We've gotten lost, and we're half frozen out here."

"State the confirmation code for platoon exercises."

"Bravo. Bravo. Omega. Lambda."

The twenty continued to move forward…but the brief period of silence that followed filled Ragnar's heart with dread. Were they buying it? He trusted that the Wutai personnel had found a way to get the appropriate information, but if they were really tightening up on security then…

"Acknowledged. You may approach."

A wave of relief went through the young general, and their group continued to proceed.

Luckily, they matched the part of a stranded group pretty well. They were rather cold and tired by now, and some of the weaker members were wavering a little. As they continued to approach, more signs began to come out ahead. Ragnar gradually began to see that the light was resting on top of a two story tower. That was standard for sentry towers. The insides, he knew, weren't that much. The second floor was nothing more than a viewing area and communications equipment. Dark shaded windows concealed the top, keeping all light on the inside from coming out. However, there were plenty of viewing devices within that could see infrared or LEDs to keep an eye on the area. The bottom floor was storage and room for the soldier complement. The whole thing was metal with a concrete foundation. As he came closer, he noticed that this particular one was somewhat swept by snow, with a pile forming against one side. Another light came on as they came nearer, this one lower than the top one. It served to illuminate a single unimpressive door. However, the door soon opened, and a moment later two armed guards came out. They didn't move to intercept them, but they did move to either side of the doorway. They watched them as they continued to approach.

Finally, the "commanding officer" reached these two guards. Here, she halted for a moment, giving a salute to both of them. They readily saluted back. However, right after doing so, the one on the right said something that threw a wrench into their plans.

"Lieutenant Barr wishes for you to leave your weapons outside before entering."

For the briefest second, Ragnar saw Wuu hesitate. She realized that this was a problem. They had counted on being able to bring their weapons inside…but this sentry was a bit too suspicious. Now, they would have to go in unarmed. However, if he could have, Ragnar wished that he could have told her to go on. A lack of weapons wouldn't be much of an issue against twenty guards. However, in the end, Wuu gave a nod, and then turned back to the others and gave a nod as well. After that, she withdrew her own military grade pistol and set it on the ground at the feet of the soldier. She entered soon after. The sergeant approached a moment later and set down his own rifle. Soon, they began to file in one at a time.

Ragnar reached the door himself. He had to remove his machine gun and put it to the side. In truth, he was somewhat glad to be rid of the thing. After that, he walked in. Illumination and warmth greeted him, and his numb cheeks cried for joy as he walked into the well-lit first floor of the sentry tower.

But that joy didn't last long. There wasn't much on this first floor. Just a few crates of supplies and the metal staircase leading to the sentry post upstairs. However…there were guards. Twelve out of the twenty were on this floor, and although they weren't aiming at them with weapons, they had them all at the ready.

A moment later, and some more potential trouble arose.

"You can leave that out here." Ragnar heard one of the soldiers state. Despite his illusion, Ragnar couldn't help but turn around and look to the door. He tensed up slightly when he did so. The guards were keeping Barret and the large Wutai officer from bringing in the crate. And that had their swords in it…

Barret frowned a moment, and looked up to Wuu. The officer hesitated once more, knowing what was in that crate. In the end, however, she had no choice but to give a nod. Frowning a bit himself, and nearly spoiling his own illusion, Barret walked with the officer to the side and set the crate down. After that, he squeezed himself through the thin door and went into the interior.

Ragnar worried somewhat now. They had lost two more weapons. He looked over to Cloud, intending to give him a silent cue as to what to do. However, Cloud wasn't listening to him. Instead, he suddenly shivered as if he had a chill, and crossed his arms around himself. He backed out of the way of the open door…and closer to one of the nearby guards. The youth understood. Immediately, he brought his own hands to his mouth and blew on them, and began to stamp his feet…inching closer to one as well.

One by one, they all entered the room. However, their acts of fatigue and cold ended up being cleverly disguised alternative movements. Tifa, as she entered, appeared rather winded, and began to immediately take off her bulky coat as she approached one side of the room. Next, she peeled off her heavy gloves, seeming to want to flex her fingers… Aerith faked a headache as she came in…and seemed to close her eyes and began to whisper something to herself… Barret developed an itch over one of his gloved hands… Yuffie groaned and began to pull off her backpack, as if it was hurting her… Of course, this all left one thing to Ragnar. When were they going to spring? What would be the signal?

As it turned out…one of their group already had that idea in mind.

The very last person to enter was Vincent. Despite how similar they were all dressed, Ragnar realized it was him immediately. The guards at the door seemed to shiver as he went in between them, as if his mere presence made them colder. He seemed to make the lights dim as he did so. They stood still for a moment, but then requested his weapon as well.

Quite calmly, Vincent pulled off his rifle, and then bent over. With extra slow movements and care, he gently set it down on top of the other weapons.

Then, in a snap, he rose…now wielding a pair of handguns. The movement was far faster than what he had been doing a moment ago…and Ragnar had to admit he hadn't even seen him reach into his sides and pull them out. It was like a magician's sleight of hand. Yet much as he was surprised, the guards were even more so. They were unable to move as the dark man raised both weapons, aimed them at either one's forehead at the same time, and fired.

The loud gunshots immediately got the full room's attention, and the guards wheeled around to the doorway. However, Vincent was already off. As the two guards were falling down, he dashed in through the open doorway and into the room. Once there, he squatted to give himself proper leverage, and then leapt. To the astonishment of the New Shinra present, Vincent sailed into the air and over their heads, propelled with seemingly supernatural force over all of them, across the room, and to the metal staircase on the other side. The moment he landed, he immediately took off for the top. So shocked were they at how abrupt this was, the New Shinra guards stood and stared blankly for a moment at what had happened…

That was a fatal mistake, because Ragnar and the others soon took advantage of the diversion. Both he and Cloud as one slammed their elbows into the crotches of the nearest guards, causing them to gasp in pain and double over. Immediately, both grabbed the weapons from their limbs, and then swung the stocks up into their faces, giving them serious if not fatal blows.

Tifa suddenly sprung to life, turned around, and buried her fist into the solar plexus of the nearest guard. As his body seemed to curl around her arm, she used him as a fulcrum to raise her body up and smash her foot against the head of the nearest guard, sending him flying. She quickly touched down a moment later, and spun around her doubled over foe. She pulled her fist out, but then gave him an iron palm so strong to the head that she turned it into a projectile that impacted the next nearest New Shinra member in the head. The resounding impact was so powerful that it disabled both, despite their helmets.

Aerith pulled her hands away from her head, and then turned and aimed her hand at one guard. Moments later, a shower of ice crystals erupted from it, instantly engulfing the man. They cut through his clothing and pierced his body with such a severe chill that the loss of body temperature was too much, and he fell to the ground unconscious. She turned her other hand to the opposite man, and this time sent out a ball of flame. The guard was helpless to do anything but gape before the fiery orb struck him, ripping him off of his feet and flinging him through the door and to the outside. Part of his clothing was put aflame by the ball, but the snow soon smothered it. Nevertheless, the power was so great that it rendered him unconscious as well.

Barret ripped the glove from his hand, and the cybernetic limb beneath immediately shifted and transformed into his minigun. He proceeded to unload with this, blowing holes not only through three more New Shinra soldiers but also through the metal walls of the outpost. That left two for Yuffie, which she readily dispatched. Giving a yell, she spun around and struck one soldier in the head full force with her backpack, knocking him out and to the ground. Another saw this, and was the only person who had recovered enough to level his gun at the enemy. But that was too late. Yuffie reached behind her, pulled out a metal spike, and flicked it once to open her shuriken. A fling later…and the last of the twelve was disabled.

As the shuriken returned to Yuffie's hand, an alarm began to blare overhead. The lights below turned red, and began to flash with a warning signal. However, the spies and the Wutai units were unable to react right away. They were stunned at how fast the PPA team had worked. Within a few seconds, the seven of them had taken out fourteen guards…perhaps even more, considering what was overhead. But in the end, Wuu blinked, shook her head, and managed to snap out of it.

"Um…right." She finally said with a nod. She began to turn soon after that, making for the stairs. "Anyway, let's hurry. They've tripped the alarm, and we've got to get the people upstairs before-"

"…It's already done."

The cold voice somehow cut through the sound of the alarm and seized everyone's attention. They turned to the source, and saw the dark visage of Vincent, eminating even through his uniform, as he slowly and calmly walked down the metal ladder. He was changing a clip in one of his pistols as he did so. During the commotion, most of them had failed to hear it, but six more gunshots had rained out overhead. The last of the platoon was gone.

There was silence for a moment longer, save for the siren, but then Yuffie collapsed her shuriken and began to replace it as she gave a cocky grin to Vincent. "Looks like you're getting sloppy in your old age." She teased. "They set off the alarm before you could get them all."

"…I let the lieutenant set off the alarm on purpose before I shot him." Vincent calmly answered.

Yuffie snickered. "Sure you did…"

"Actually, that's what we want, commander." Wuu suddenly spoke up, turning back to the rest of the group. On hearing this, Yuffie's face immediately turned to sudden surpise and puzzlement, and looked to her. "Now we can carry out the next part of our plan appropriately. We're going to be assuming the identity of this crew we just eliminated, and say we were attacked by a group of imposters. Telling this message to command, and saying we're injured, will give us an excuse to go to the Dome. And on that note…I have work to do."

With that, Wuu turned and began to go for the stairs herself. As she did, Yuffie, looking more surprised, turned to Vincent. The dark man calmly replaced his gun in his side, and then began to walk down the stairs without another look, allowing Wuu to go by and run up them. The girl blushed a bit sheepishly after this, but then crossed her arms and pouted again.

"Alright, everyone." The "sergeant" announced, turning back to the others. "Quiet down while Wuu gives the message. We don't want it to sound like we're just hanging out down here."

The group did as they were told. They stayed still and quiet, and turned all of their attention upstairs. They listened as Wuu finished going to the top and ran over to an unseen point. Once she was there, they heard her voice call back.

"Emergency! Emergency! Code Tango Zeta Charlie Epsilon Santiago Episilon! This is Outpost 36! Come in Central Command!"

"This is Central Command. Code confirmed. What is the emergency, Lieutenant Barr?"

"We were ambushed! A group of PPA and WGN operatives disguised as a Field Exercises Team attacked us! We eliminated them, but we have sustained heavy damage! Several of our members are injured and one is seriously wounded! We request an immediate replacement team so that we can get our troops to the medic!"

"Acknowledged. Be advised it will take some time to clear up a vehicle…"

"Bring one as soon as possible! We'll be coming in on foot until then! We have to get this member to an infirmary!"

The room went silent upstairs after that. A few moments later, and Wuu came back down the metal staircase to rejoin the crowd. All of their attention was focused on her as she came. Once she was down, she turned and looked back to them all, and then gave a nod.

"Alright everyone…let's get ready."

The PPA units were a bit confused on this. However, the WGN and spies went right to work, and Ragnar watched them to see what they were doing. First off…he saw them proceed to remove their own ID badges and replace them with the dead soldiers around them. The youth quickly picked up on the reasoning, as did the others. Soon, they found members of their own and began to switch the tags as well. After all, they had to look like the people from this group.

Once they were done, however, Ragnar saw them doing other things. Some began to reach into their breast pockets, and emerge with clear tubes that were filled with something red. On pulling them out, they broke them, and began to smear them in certain places on their faces. The result looked like blood. Others took out their pocketknives and began to slice away at their clothing, making them a bit more messed up and torn looking. Seeing this, Ragnar realized they were also to make themselves look more dirty and haggard to conform with Wuu's statement. He began to look to his own pocket for one for him…

However, one of the Wutai spies came up at this and stopped him. "Can you fake a limp?" He asked as he put a hand on his own, stopping him from reaching.

Ragnar paused and looked up to him. He hesitated a moment, but then gave a nod. "Yeah…I guess so."

The spy nodded, and then went down into a crouch. He looked at Ragnar's left leg. After pausing a moment, he reached out for what looked like a proper-washing tag on the side of his snow pants. He gave a pull on it.

Immediately, two pops went out, one in front of Ragnar's leg and one in the back. The youth stiffened a bit in surprise as he saw an explosive hole put into his pants. Not only that, but he was more surprised when he saw blood red liquid begin to flow from it. However…he realized he didn't feel anything after a moment. It was all fake, embedded in the uniform he wore. To his surprise, he now looked like he had a fake bullet wound that had gone through his calf. He looked up, and soon saw a few others beginning to do this. Not everyone, for that would be too obvious, but enough to leave the effect of some of them being truly injured.

The group continued their "makeup" for a bit longer, but within less than five minutes they had switched identities and left themselves looking rather rough. With that done, they exited out through the front again. It was still pitch black outside, and there were no sounds of any recovery units having come in yet. Even when they got there, it would take hours for them to figure out that the people who were dead here weren't operatives, but NSA soldiers. The unconscious ones would be out even longer than that. Until then, the ID badges would throw them off. Once more, everyone took up their weapons again. Yet after grabbing them, Wuu called their attention again.

"Alright…now here comes the tricky part." She began. "One of us is going to have to be the seriously injured one. Now, we operatives have been trained in being able to do this, but I can't do it because I was on the radio. It will have to be one of the other spies. Now this is a hard job, because whoever volunteers for this is going to have to stay behind when the rest of us-"

BLAM

The sound of a gunshot piercing the air silenced Wuu. The group spun around immediately. Ragnar himself raised his gun, fearing that one of the people in the outpost had recovered and had fired at them. But when they looked to the source, they were far more surprised at what they saw.

Vincent weakly dropped his pistol to the ground as he pulled it away from his own side.

He had shot himself.

The nineteen others gaped. Aerith cupped her hands to her mouth in shock and horror, and Yuffie looked like her eyes would drop out of her skull. An instant later, Ragnar, Cloud, and the others rushed to him. The two men reached his side just as he collapsed to his knees. He grunted a bit, and steadied himself with one hand against the ground, keeping himself from falling any further. They both grabbed his side and supported him as they came in, stopping him from collapsing.

"Are you crazy?" Ragnar found himself nearly yelling at him.

"No…I'm acting efficiently…" Vincent grit between his teeth, nearly whispering, as he supported himself on the two generals. "I knew where to shoot so I would miss any vitals…and my metabolism will heal this injury in less than a day. I'll make a far more convincing victim."

Ragnar hesitated. Mad as it sounded…Vincent was right. Now he was in true pain with a true injury. And he doubted that even the spies would have been willing to shoot themselves to fake this injury. But still…this was crazy. Now he'd be stuck here with no way out. The other operatives would have been better suited. However, once again, it seemed as if the ex-Turk had taken the initiative. Maybe it was because he valued his own agent status so much better…but he was turning this operation into his show.

The others in Ragnar's group heard Vincent croak this as they yanked him to his feet. They also knew how fast he could regenerate. As a result, they weren't too worried. However, the WGN units and spies had neither heard this nor knew of Vincent's regeneration. They simply thought that one of the PPA members had gone crazy and shot himself for the good of the team. At any rate, he appeared to be seriously injured enough when Cloud and Ragnar got him to his feet. As they turned and looked back to Wuu, the woman stammered a moment, but then sighed and frowned.

"…Get him on top of the crate." She finally acquiesced, knowing she had no choice now. "Our excuse is that we'll be using that as a stretcher. Then let's get moving. We picked this time to strike partially based on the fact that we knew no vehicles would be available for hours, so that we wouldn't have to risk people getting a close look at us. That means we still have to walk most of the way."

3 Hours Before Commencement Of Operation Gold Strike

And so the next phase of the journey went.

Although the road was still long and through lots of snow and darkness, it was far more dangerous than before. Now, they were freely wandering in between sentry posts. It wasn't long before some of the mobile units came by. Most of them were two-man snowmobiles, and so they didn't attempt to relieve them of their "victim". There was no room on them. They only served to check in with them, ask how they were doing, and then say they were going back to try and hurry along some real help. That, in turn, made the group move faster. After all…if they picked up Vincent, there was no reason for them to use the crate as a stretcher. At any rate, they were constantly under the watchful eye of the New Shinra now, forcing them to really put on the illusions.

Ragnar himself found it much harder to limp through the snow than walk normally, and consciously had to repress the instinctive urge to step down. He was able to switch guns with Cloud at one point, letting him use a rifle as a crutch, which helped out somewhat. But it was still a long trip, and rather hard. They had barely warmed up at the post, and so they were still rather cold and getting more so as they worked their way on. They were plenty tired too, and on top of all of this a constant wind was coming up.

Yet at last, Ragnar was able to look through his visor…and see it. The place he swore he was never going back to was finally looming in the distance. Had it been daylight, he would have seen it long before now. But in the night sky, it wasn't until they drew close enough for the lights tipping the rods that surrounded it to show up that they were able to make it out. Most of them now saw it for the first time.

It was just as large as Ragnar remembered it, if not bigger. The huge semi-sphere filled out the entire bottom of the basin valley. It was like a great man-made mountain rising out of the ground. The sentries and patrols grew thicker in here. Larger armed snowmobiles began to occur…followed by actual tanks rolling around. The group found themselves crossing past temporary bridges stretched over trenches, and walking past heavy gun emplacements that were currently idle. Knowing that at any moment all of these could be trained on them if some higher-up decided that they were foes unsettled the general. Yet he tried to look as normal as possible as he went on.

It was around 0430 hours when they finally reached the enormous concrete "patio" in front of the Dome. Here, they could see several Gelinkas docked, and watched some early morning troop platoons out on march. They were frequently passed by incoming and outcoming units, who, based on orders, ignored them despite their pitiful state. This close to the Dome, the massive structure filled one's vision. They could start to see the lights reflecting off of the shiny metal surface. What more, they could also begin to see a ring of lights stretching around the bottom of the Dome. These served to illuminate the bays in which all of the troops and vehicles could exit and enter. Ragnar still remembered fleeing from one less than two years ago…

As they neared and began to make out the details of the bays, at last they were intercepted. A group of medics rushed out to meet up with them. After a brief exchange, they unloaded Vincent and put him onto a stretcher. He didn't resist, and appeared to be passed out. However, Ragnar had a good feeling that such wasn't the case. At any rate, they took him away and rushed him inside. In order to maintain the need for the crate, they put Ragnar on top of it, using the excuse that "he had walked far enough on a bad leg". Needless to say, the youth was grateful.

The group continued to march forward. As Ragnar lay on his back and looked up…he slowly saw the threshold of the Dome edge come over him. As the cold wind was finally broken, the warmth of the place did little to comfort them. They were now fully in enemy hands. At any rate, he continued to lean back and watched as they moved in closer. The sounds of other commotion began to arise, from other soldiers throughout the bay carrying out their duties. He turned his head once they were out of the snow and began to walk on solid ground.

What he saw was a major up ahead, flanked by a pair of guards. They were standing in the path of the group, blocking them from going any further. Just beyond was the entrance into the Dome itself. Wuu led their train all the way up to them, and then came to a halt. On doing so, she saluted, letting the major salute back in response.

"I'm sorry we couldn't be of more assistance in bringing you in, Lieutenant." The major began.

"We made it here safe and sound, sir. That's the important thing." Wuu answered. "My real fear is that we would be ambushed by more units on the way here, finishing us off."

"If there are any more out there, we'll find them." The major responded.

"I and the rest of my unit are pretty exhausted from our march, not to mention frozen. We need to take some of them into sickbay. I'd also like to know of the status of our more seriously injured soldier."

"Yes, of course. Your unit will be escorted to Temp Barracks 3. From there, our medical teams will come and take your more seriously injured. Those who are only lightly injured can remain there and rest. We'll hold the debriefing in there to make things easier on you all."

"Thank you, sir. If you please…we'd like to get there right away."

Whatever game are you playing at?

The dark man wondered this as he watched the dirty, frozen team slowly walk by. They looked roughed up enough, but he knew better. Even if he hadn't been enhanced in all of his senses, he had seen enough war in his past to know when people were truly injured. And even if that weren't the case…he recognized five members in particular of that little group all too well…

They, of course, weren't aware of him. Oh no…he had ways of being unseen when he did not wish to be. And now, his power over illusions was so great that he could all but stand next to them without them knowing. It really was unnecessary for him to simply spy on them as he was doing right now…looking in through one of the walls through a miniscule crack as they walked by. Cloud was stirring a bit as he walked by, but it didn't matter. He'd pass if off as unease about the mission…not him. Or perhaps he wouldn't. Who knew? Who cared?

It was quite tempting to simply kill them all right now…but what good would that do?

For today…only one of them would die. At least, at his hand. As for the others? Well…they could romp with their nice playmates.

In fact…he counted on them doing so…and would ensure it.

With that in mind, he calmly turned away from the break in the wall, and back into the machine-filled interior of the Dome. Slowly, he began to walk back into the darkness that seemed to be his native element. As he did, he lifted the radio that he had "procured" from an unsuspecting guard that morning, and raised it to his mouth.

"Security…I need to report a breach."

To be continued...