AN: I kind of forgot how crazy President Shinra sounds until I had to write this. No wonder Rufus wanted to take over. At least the President isn't around for much longer...

Enjoy!

Chapter 4
Have You Lost Your Touch?

In the 66th floor surveillance room, Rude eyed the people on a monitor and sighed. Tifa... she and Aerith were standing outside the 66th floor elevator. Suddenly, the two girls were surrounded by SOLDIERs. Aerith was almost immediately handcuffed and taken up the elevator. A few minutes later, she showed up coming out the 67th floor elevator. The prison block for her then. Rude sighed in relief. At least the Turks hadn't lost her.

Tifa put up a longer fight, but eventually she too was handcuffed and taken up the elevator. She didn't come out until the 69th floor and Rude remembered that the President had wanted to meet with AVALANCHE as soon as he caught them.

He glanced at another monitor. In it, Cloud, Barret and Nanaki raced down the escalator from the 68th floor. When they reached the 66th floor, they left the escalator and went onto the 66th floor. Cloud was limping slightly, and Barret looked like he was recovering from being Poisoned.

Rude looked over at Tseng and Tseng nodded. They left the surveillance room and went along the wall of the conference room. Around the corner, Rude saw the three of them enter the elevator. Knowing Tseng would be right behind him, Rude shouldered his way into the elevator before the doors could close. Barret gaped and Cloud turned around.

"H, hey," he panted. "What is it?"

Feeling confident that the group was in no shape to fight, Rude relaxed. "Would you press 'Up' please?" he deadpanned and pointed towards the ceiling. Reno must be rubbing off on me, he thought.

"Turks," Cloud groaned. "Must be a trap..."

At that, Tseng walked in. "It must have been a real thrill for you," he told them as he swiped his ID card on the pad and pressed the button for the 69th floor. The elevator stared moving. "Did you enjoy it?" he asked sarcastically. Cloud just grimaced.

When they reached the 69th floor, Rude handcuffed all three of them and led them into the President's office. Along the way, he collected Tifa.

In the large office, AVALACHE lined up in front of the President's large desk. Cloud looked to either side of him and was surprised when he saw Tifa next to him. "You got caught too?" he asked her. She nodded and Cloud turned to the President. "Where is Aerith! ?" he demanded. Rude internally sighed. Not another long speech...

The President smiled at Cloud from his chair. "In a safe place." He got out of his chair and walked to the side of his desk and looked at Cloud with a knowing look in his eye. "She's the last surviving Ancient... Don't you know? They called themselves the Cetra, and lived thousands of years ago. Now they are just a forgotten page in history."

"Cetra... That girl, is she a survivor of the Cetra?" Nanaki whispered to himself. Rude nearly raised an eyebrow. Not forgotten by everyone, it seems.

President Shinra walked down in front of his desk and looked at Tifa. "Cetra, or the Ancients will show us the way to the 'Promised Land.' I'm expecting a lot out of her."

"The Promised Land? Isn't that just a legend?" Nanaki said.

"Even so, it's just too appealing to not to pursue." The President continued on. "It's been said the Promised Land is very fertile. ...If the land is fertile..."

"Then there's gotta be Mako!" It was Barret.

The President turned to him. "Exactly," he agreed. "That is why our money sucking Mako Reactor is necessary. The abundant Mako will just come out on its own. That is where Neo-Midgar will be built. Shin-Ra's new glory..." Rude's eyes narrowed. It is speeches like this that lead the executives and Rufus to think President Shinra is loosing his touch.

"&$#*^%! Quit dreamin'!" Barret spat at the President.

President Shinra shook his head. "Oh really, don't you know? These days, all it takes for you dreams to come true is money and power. Well!" He straitened his suit. "That is all for our meeting."

Rude took the hint and approached AVALANCHE. "Come on! Outta of his way!" he ordered.

Cloud, Tifa, and Nanaki made their way towards the stairs, but Barret stayed. "Hold it!" he shouted. "I got a lot I wanna say to you!" He began to make his way towards the President, but Rude pulled him away and escorted him down the stairs.

Once they were on the 69th floor, Tseng and Rude met up with a group of 3rd Class SOLDIERs and handed AVALANCHE over to them.

"Take them to the 67th floor prison block," Tseng told the SOLDIERs. They saluted and escorted AVALANCHE down the escalator. Rude wondered how long AVALANCHE would stay in the prison block.

End

AN: I hope I got Rude right. One more chapter and then we are out of Midgar. Thanks for reading!