Chapter 17 – Alright... So Who's Alive Now?

"Ow... ow... ow... stop it." Reno complained as the jeep bounced at the slightest deviation in the road and Rude sped away from the A.E.C. building. "I think you should probably pull over. You're clearly drunk."

"And you're clearly concussed." Elena said, looking into her companion's eyes. With the excitement of the escape dying down, Elena had a moment to think. "Why the fuck didn't you tell us you were alive, you prick?" she reprimanded the injured Turk.

"Dunno... more fun this way." Reno slurred. "Can- Can I have a cure or two now, that'd be jus' great."

Yuffie reached for the cure materia she had with her. "Rude, have you talked to Cid yet? Where's the Highwind?"

Rude handed the radio to her. "Here."

"Cid? Cloud? Can you hear me? We've got him." Yuffie spoke into the reciever.

"Cid? Cloud? Can you hear me? We've got him." Yuffie's small voice crackled out of the radio as Cloud reached for it from his position in the passenger seat.

"Good. How is he?"

"Pretty roughed up, but then again... He's supposed to be dead, so comparatively he's doing pretty great."

"Good point. The Highwind crew moved the ship to the outskirts of the town. Where are you now?"

"We're heading north down third street. What does that mean for us?" Yuffie inquired.

"Means you're in great shape. We're just heading north down fourth now, about five minutes from the High-" Cloud was cut off by the bark of gunfire emerging from a jeep behind him. "Dammit, we've got a group following us."

"Yeah, us too." In the background of Yuffie's message, he could hear similar shots ringing out. "They seem kinda pissed off. You'd think we blew a hole in their wall or something."

Cloud couldn't help but laugh. "See if you can't lose them before you reach the outskirts of town. We're gonna be aiming for a pretty quick take off time here."

"You got it. Later."

Elena reached out of the back of the window, firing away with her pistol at the pursuing vehicles. "Shit, they're reinforced all around. I need something bigger than this." Yuffie looked back at her blond friend and checked the Conformer, pulling out her Ultima materia, holding it up helpfully. "Too big." Yuffie pouted and pulled out a Bolt instead. "Perfect. Light them up."

Yuffie focused on their pursuers intently, but was distracted by Reno who had shifted during the chase. "Hey, somethin's diggin' to my back. L'il help?"

The younger girl looked down. "Reno, shut up, I can't concentrate." Focusing again, she was about to release the materia's power when Rude swerved to avoid another barrage of gunfire and as a result the blast sailed far wide of its target.

"Really..." Rude insisted. "You should help me. I like help."

"Reno!" Yuffie yelled, exasperated and ducking as Elena fruitlessly fired off her pistol. "Would you shut the fu-" Looking down at what Reno was trying so hard to roll off of, Yuffie's voice caught in her throat. "Hey, Lena?"

"What?"

"Can you use a rocket launcher?"

"Yeah, that'd be just great right about now."

Yuffie hefted the weapon's storage box out from underneath Reno and placed it between her and Elena before concentrating on her Bolt spells again. "Ahh, the benefits of stealing military issue jeeps."

Elena blinked in disbelief a couple times before loading up the devastating weapon and hoisting it out of the window. "Yes, this will do just fine."

"Toldja." A small voice piped up from the floor.

Luckily for Cloud's group, only a single jeep had been following theirs. A combined blast of Tifa's Fire spell and Red's Bolt had ripped the A.E.C. jeep apart behind them. Reaching the Highwind, the group was out of the stolen vehicle nearly before it had stopped moving. Cid rushed to the ladder of the ship, while Cloud secured the ground.

"We need to get this piece ready to roll Right now!" Cid yelled, his crew scrambling with last second preparations. As the Captain reached the wheel of the massive airship, Rude's jeep tore out of the Gongaga city, its pursuers entirely dispatched as well. Red vaulted himself from the vehicle and tore towards the Highwind, his ascent being secured by Vincent while Rude and Elena carried Reno towards the ladder with Yuffie watching their backs from any sign of lingering assailants. Rushing everybody into the hull of the ship, Cid pulled up hard against gravity and AVALANCHE and the Turks were gone. Breathing a collective sigh of relief, they all composed themselves.

"Alright..." Cid lit up a cigarette. "So who's alive now?"

Davis approached Alexander standing alone in his office. The president spoke first. "Did they suspect anything Davis?"

"No sir. Once the Highwind had entered our airspace our own ships moved out. We feel AVALANCHE was more than sufficiently distracted with their own espionage attempts."

"Outstanding. Shame to lose Kassidy like that though. Almost." Davis couldn't help but cringe at his employer's callousness. Still, he knew what he had signed up for. "How long until we're ready to operate."

"Only a matter of hours really. Just as soon as all the teams check in. If intelligence was only half right, we'll have no problems securing all objectives. Security has been waning with a lack of manpower and interest over the last three years. We couldn't hope for a better time. The only possible complication will be Junon."

"But?" Alexander inquired.

"But that is why we sent the largest force of high quality ex-SOLIDER there, Sir."

"What about Wallace?"

"A specific team has been dispatched to secure the newest objective in Corel in addition to the original squad."

"Again, outstanding." Alexander turned and smiled. "I'm going to go see Kaylynn. Be ready to open communications with Reeve first, then the other world leaders."

The Highwind sailed majestically towards Rocket Town while the group stood over Reno's fairly unmoving, but quickly healing body.

"So..." Tifa was the first to speak. "How'd you get out of Midgar."

Reno blinked a couple times, trying to remember. "Ohhhh man..." he trailed off.

"What?" Yuffie asked.

Reno covered his eyes with his hand. "Reeve's gonna be so pissed."

Cloud looked down at the Turk exceptionally disapprovingly. "Why?"

"I kinda sorta shot three or four of his people."

"What?" Cloud exclaimed furiously.

"I didn't kill them." Reno held up his hands. "Just gave them a little incentive not to follow me is all."

Cloud and Cid left the room disgusted with the Turk. "Goddamned murderer..." The pilot murmured as he departed.

"So how did you get out anyway?" Elena asked this time.

"Oh that." Reno spoke nonchalantly. "Just climbed out really. Piece of cake... Then I followed you guys around for a while. Great funeral by the way." He winked at Yuffie.

"You were there for that?" Yuffie's eyes widened.

"Yeah... The dog-cat-thingy recognized me too, but was smart enough to keep quite about it." Reno reached over and patted Red's head. "Good boy."

Red growled at the injured man. "If you do that again, I'm afraid I'll be forced to become increasingly aggressive."

Reno whistled as the beast's polite ferocity and retracted his hand. "You got it. So what did you guys find out at A.E.C. that I don't know yet."

"Nothing." Vincent spoke. "They are responsible for all our recent tribulations and must be dealt with."

"Yeah," Yuffie added. "And now they have that Tseng guy to help."

"No!" Elena protested. "That isn't Tseng..." she trailed off. "It Can't be him."

Rude put his arm around her shoulders and looked at Reno. "Kaylynn is involved."

"I know, I saw her. It's been years."

"About three and a half." Rude responded.

Alexander entered the lab to find Kaylynn speaking with Tseng quietly. 'Likely inciting memories that will never emerge. Lord, will she never move on?' he thought to himself.

"Any luck?" The president asked, forcing a sense of encouragement into his voice.

Dr. Howari looked up coldly. "No, not yet."

"That's a shame. Truly. But if you're quite done, I'm going to need him ready to go soon. The next phase of the operation is nearly upon us, and I'm growing increasingly concerned with AVALANCHE's and the Turks roles in this little drama.

"I told you not to get them involved." Howari spoke smugly.

Alexander bit down the rage that emerged in his throat. Since Tseng's... revival the doctor was becoming less and less tolerable in her rejection of his advances. His patience was wearing thin.

"Regardless. Have him ready to go."

After Alexander left the room, Kaylynn Howari turned back to the incarnation of her husband that sat with her. "Now... Where were we?"

Reeve sat in his office, futilely attempting to work his way through a daunting amount of paperwork that had accumulated on his desk. Try as he might to ignore it, his mind consistently found itself wondering how his friends were doing as that exact moment, and his eyes kept moving towards the drawer in the middle right of his large and well furbished desk where he knew the controls to Cait Sith lay. 'Maybe I should have broke the cat out of retirement. They need all the help they can get.' Reeve shook the pessimism out of his mind and tried to get back to the task at hand. 'Who am I kidding, they'll be fine. I've just been working too late this past week.' He looked over at the clock and considered finally going home instead of falling asleep in the office again.

It was at this moment that Andrea stuck her head into his office. "Mr..." she started before catching herself with a smile at his playfully disapproving raised eyebrow. "Reeve, there's a Corin Alexander on the line for you." Reeve's smile disappeared at the mention of the A.E.C. President's name while a cold feeling of dread gripped Reeve.

"Thank you Andrea. I'll take it immediately."

The guard outside of the Mideel electric whistled to himself softly as he did his nightly singular patrol of the grounds. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary... as per usual... he headed back inside for his nap. He would only get halfway before the blow struck him viciously and he crumpled into the grass. A few sharp hand-signals later, and the A.E.C. espionage team moved quickly into the facility.

The guards all around the world fared about as well as the Mideel one did, if only increasing in number rather than security. Quickly enough facilities in Wutai, Kalm and Junon came under the control of A.E.C.'s troops. Even in Rocket Town, the Rocket itself was secured stealthily enough.

In Corel, the A.E.C.'s BlackOut troops split from their drop point. Half of the men moved quickly to the key structures that intelligence had tagged weeks ago as in the other cities, while the other half moved to the residence of Barret Wallace to secure what Alexander had referred to as a "bargaining chip."

"Corin." Reeve put on a false sense of warmth. "What can I do for you my friend."

On the other side of the phone, Corin Alexander laughed to himself. "Oh come now Reeve. We're both well aware that neither of us considers the other a friend. In fact, this phone call will only serve to prove that."

Reeve's voice went dark. "What do you want?"

"I want you, and all the other major electric companies, to sign over complete ownership to A.E.C. and willingly come under my control. Co-operate, and I may even let you keep your job."

Reeve couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity of it all. "And just why would I, or anybody for that matter, do something as foolish as that."

"Simple..." Alexander paused with confidence. "Because as of right now, Mako enhanced bombs replicated from the technology of the Sister Ray have been planted and secured in key points around the world. Don't worry" Alexander cut Reeve off from speaking. "I'll be speaking with the leaders of Mideel, Wutai, Kalm, Corel and Rocket Town soon enough."

Reeve thumbed the silent alarm under his desk to summon his head of security. "And I suppose you have control of Junon as well, or I wouldn't be speaking with you right now."

Alexander chuckled. "Reeve... I made sure Your bomb was the biggest. Oh, and if you try to have your AVALANCHE friends get involved, a Mr. Wallace and his daughter have both been secured by my men, with orders to eliminate at the slightest provocation. I expect an answer within twenty-four hours Reeve. Good bye." And with that Alexander hung up.

Reeve's personal head of security burst through the office door flanked by five men all brandishing weapons and searching for potential threats.

"It's alright James." Reeve spoke while rubbing his temples with his eyes closed. "There's no immediate threat... yet."

"Sir?" James questioned as he holstered his handgun. Reeve explained the situation. By the time he had finished, the department heads had all been called in from home or their office to Reeve's in order to properly handle the situation.

"Sir, should we contact the other cities?" Johnston, the head of Junon's military questioned.

"No." Reeve answered. "Not yet, Alexander is likely doing that right now." The President of Shin-ra looked thoughtful for a moment. "But I want you to get the military together and ready to be deployed to each of the mentioned cities at a moment's notice. And we must begin immediately searching for where Alexander has planted his bomb here in Junon. Right now, that should be our top priority." Moments later Reeve's personal line rang. "Reeve here."

"This is Godo. Have you spoken to Alexander?"

"I have. My military is preparing and willing to assist Wutai and the other cities at a moments notice."

"The sentiment is appreciated my friend, but Wutai's own forces will be sufficient enough to handle Gongaga riff-raff. Save your forces for those without an active military."

"Thank you Godo. Good luck."

"What of AVALANCHE." Wutai's emperor inquired.

"I was told not to get them involved. Apparently they've captured Barret."

On his end Godo frowned deeply. "Surely you won't leave them in the dark about this."

"No, they're bound to find out soon enough. It would be best that I prepare them for the worst." Reeve set his mouth in a thin line of determination as his personal lines lit up with calls from the other world leaders. "Godo, I have-"

"Say no more friend. You have your problems to attend to, and we'll deal with ours as well as assisting where possible. Keep in touch."

"Thank you." With that, Reeve switched lines and began conversing with other leaders not so different from himself.

Johnston re-entered the room. "All forces ready to dispatch, Sir."

"Thank you." Reeve spoke into the receiver before hanging up. "Very good Johnston. Send our men to Mideel, Rocket Town and Corel."

"What about Wutai and Kalm, sir?"

"We'll leave those to Godo and his men. They'll be capable enough, I'm sure. As of right now," Reeve picked up his PHS. "I have some close friends to call."

The Highwind had landed in Rocket Town a few hours after sunset, and the group was still unsure of the next course of action. Shera had heard the ship coming in, and already prepared large amounts of tea while AVALANCHE and the Turks sat around Cid's refurbished home.

"So, any ideas?" Cloud asked the group. He was met with silence. "Yeah, me neither." Just then, the PHS picked its moment to ring. The group looked slightly confused at the sound, before Cloud shook his head and realized it was his. "Sorry, that's me. Hello?" he spoke into the device. "Reeve? What's the matter?" Cloud's eyes went dark as he listened intently. The group looked about, none of them having the slightest idea what was going on. After a few minutes, Cloud finally spoke again. "I understand. I'll call you back when we've come to a decision. Thank you Reeve." There was genuine gratitude in Cloud's voice for his friend. He hung up the PHS.

"What's the matter honey?" Tifa asked, clearly concerned.

"Alexander contacted Reeve. He's holding the world hostage."

"How?" Cid asked between sips of tea.

"He's set up Mako bombs in cities around the world."

Tifa was horrified. "We have to stop him."

Cloud looked over with concern written blatantly over his face. "We can't. They have Barret."

"Mother fucker." Cid spat out.

"That certainly does complicate things." Red added.

"So how do we do this?" Yuffie asked.

"I don't know. He's got bombs in Mideel, Wutai, Kalm, Junon, Corel and..." Cloud paused as he looked at Cid and Shera. "Here." He finished.

"Goddamn." Cid ground his cigarette out. "Well, looks like I'd better start moving people outta the city."

"Reeve's sending men to each of the cities except for Wutai and Kalm. Godo has them covered."

Yuffie couldn't help but smile with pride at Cloud's information. "So again, how do we do this."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Reno spoke up from the back. "Why do 'we' have to do anything?" This isn't some of our usual crap, this is directly taking on an army. This is outta our league."

"But we can't sit back and do nothing Reno." Tifa implored.

"Maybe you can't but the Turks are smarter than that." He looked over at Rude and Elena. "Come on, let's go."

"Reno..." Elena started sheepishly. Rude placed a hand on her shoulder showing his support. "My parents are in Mideel..." she trailed off.

Reno looked at her in disbelief. "You have got to be kidding me." He threw up his arms in disgust. "Fine, you two wanna die, you go right ahead. I'm out." And with that, he started to leave the home.

"Well, I just think you're scared." Cloud taunted Reno's retreating back. The Turk froze.

"What did you just say?" The voice was calm, and Reno's head did not move.

"I said 'I think you're scared'." Cloud repeated. Yuffie looked back and forth between the two.

"Shin-ra tried to break me... and I came back." Reno's voice remained eerily calm. A slight turn of the head and the hair about his face shifted. "Hojo drove me to the brink of insanity..." Another pause, as his voice rose. "And I came back."

Reno turned completely to face Cloud once more, the intensity and rage swelling with each word. "Midgar buried me alive!" Cloud flinched. "And I Came BACK!" Reno's voice reached new heights.

A silence settled over the group as nervous eyes shifted between Reno and Cloud. Again the Turk's voice took an unsettling, placid tone. "What makes you think there's anything left on this fucking planet that can scare me now."

Reno turned and walked out of the room.