"How many times must I tell you to knock, Zack?" Sephiroth sounded like he hadn't slept for at least three days.

"It's really important, General Sephiroth," Zack said, closing the door quietly behind him.

Sephiroth straightened, clearly caught off guard by the formality of address.

He sat in the chair across from Sephiroth's desk and immediately stood back up. Sephiroth watched him pace across the office and return to the seat.

Zack knew he had to tell his commanding officer something but he wasn't sure what to start with. He wasn't even sure he was comfortable telling him everything. This was Cloud he would be talking about, and while he couldn't say the guy had done exactly the right thing, it all looked mighty suspicious on the Shinra side.

"You have something to say," Sephiroth said by means of prompting.

Zack sighed, figuring he'd just start talking. "I went down to the slums today again. Cloud managed to…get away…earlier. Those are the words he used, get away. So he came to see me today."

Sephiroth's eyes widened.

"Something's going on Sephiroth. Something bigger than I expected."

"CS Delivery?"

"Maybe. But something else." He leaned forward, staring his commanding officer hard in the eyes. "Sephiroth, Cloud is pumped full of more mako than I am."

Sephiroth was shaking his head even before he spoke. "No Zack. That's not possible. There's nothing in his record indicating enhancement."

"Cloud shines brighter than I do. And the guy already had ridiculously bright blue eyes, just look at the photos in his file. But I saw myself Sephiroth, he's got so much mako that his blue eyes have little fiddly bits of green in them." He waggled his fingers significantly to emphasize the point. "And he started zoning out just a little while we were talking and his pupils started to go catty like yours. I measured his height against mine and compared muscle mass to what I remember. He's taller and more toned than should be possible. I even picked him up to test his weight. He's put on a fair number of pounds." He leaned back in his seat. "I just know someone's been experimenting on him, Sephiroth. You've heard the rumors. Some of the scientists are a little too free with their morals. Just look at what Hollander did."

"Supposing all this is true," Sephiroth's eyes narrowed with more than just skepticism, "why didn't you bring him back?"

"He's really…suspicious of Shinra Company in general." He could hear the pained empathy in his own voice. "He thinks he'll end up in a lab somewhere."

Zack propped his elbows on the edge of Sephiroth's desk and kept talking. "He doesn't remember how he got in the Shinra training yard before he collapsed. He said he just woke up there with that Second Class yelling at him. He remembers seeing his failed results for the first Soldier exam he took but doesn't remember taking the exam itself. The list goes on."

Zack flattened his hands on the desk to keep from clenching his fists. "And even weirder, he remembers things he shouldn't, Sephiroth, classified things." And things that didn't even happen to him, Zack thought to himself. "He remembers an attack during the Wutai War. He hadn't even joined Shinra yet. And he remembers having a conversation with Genesis."

Sephiroth's expression hardened. "If he has anything to do with the deserters—"

"No Sephiroth, listen to me." Zack ignored the general's momentary surprise at being ordered in such a manner. "He remembers a conversation I had with Genesis on one of the missions when you and I were confronting him. Cloud described it using my words that I didn't even put down in the reports. I never told him about any of that stuff. He didn't have the clearance. It's like he has my memories. It's freaking me right the shit out that my best friend may have been experimented on and given my memories and there's no way I'm bringing him back here until we figure out what's going on."

Sephiroth tapped a pen on his desk. "This is very important, Zack," he said slowly. "Do you think he could be CS Delivery?"

Zack clenched his jaw for a moment, knowing this question was going to be asked. He took a deep breath. "He's the right height and build. He was pretty relaxed around me so I didn't get anything like muscle response or that. But given his memory issues, I think he could be CS Delivery and not know it. He says there are other people helping him and got really cagey when I tried asking about them."

"You think the others are handlers of sorts?"

"Could be."

"If Strife is CS Delivery and someone is pulling the strings from behind, then we need to figure out who and how and you need to make sure he keeps trusting you."

"I would do that anyway." A wash of indignant irritation swept through Zack. That anyone would even consider he abandon Cloud was insulting. "I'm not leaving Spike to the wolves."

"I'll bring Tseng up to speed and get him to covertly combing through Shinra for unsanctioned mako experiments."

Zack said, "I've got a couple missions lined up and then I'm going to try and set up another meeting with Spiky."

Then Tseng unceremoniously barged into Sephiroth's office without knocking. "News on the stolen property, Sephiroth." Tseng threw an absent "Zack" his direction and laid out several papers on the general's desk.

"We're still working on Nibelheim but we're reasonably sure about North Corel and Junon. Everything is in these manifests if you look closely enough," Tseng waved a hand over the papers and kept on with barely a breath, "but I'll give you the abridged version. Scarlet dubbed this prototype materia Huge materia. It's exactly what it sounds like. These pieces are so huge that they can't be used in weapons or armor and they're not meant to be used that way. They're used in conjunction with the most straightforward materia to actually create a new kind of materia that not even the science department has attempted. They're calling the new materia Master materia."

"What does it matter what they're called?" Sephiroth asked tersely.

"Quite a bit General. Huge materia may be about the size of a human head but it weighs near one hundred pounds. With the speed CS Delivery and his comrades travel, if he isn't enhanced, it's impossible for him to carry around that much weight."

Tseng took a deep breath as though to steel himself. "And Master materia is exactly how it's described. If you take one piece of mastered materia on that list and pretty much pile it together next to its corresponding Huge materia, the Huge materia forcibly fuses together each of the mastered pieces to make one typically sized materia that holds every single spell and ability the pile of individual materia was capable of casting."

Zack's brain didn't want to wrap around that.

Sephiroth blinked several times, brows lifting. "You mean one materia would be able to…" he paused to look over one sheet of paper, "cast Cure and Ice?"

Tseng's face hardened. "And Demi and Life and Flare and Haste and Bio and Fire 1, 2, and 3 and every other basic magic that comes with tiered green materia, not the focused materia the materia department churns out for fusion purposes."

Zack liked the focused materia as it usually cast faster and worked better for his fighting style but anyone could get tiered materia if they had the gil. They sold that stuff in the slums.

Tseng kept going. "It gets even worse if you think about one piece of materia being able to summon sixteen different summons. And if you think about putting the Master Magic in a paired slot with say, an Added Effect, if they're wearing it on their armor it makes them immune to every status effect possible and if they're wearing it on their weapon then they'll inflict every status effect possible. That's why they didn't bother making it compatible with the Dark or Hell materia series'. It would be redundant. Fortunately, the Master Command is a bit more limited and there's nothing for the Independent class but that doesn't make much difference if you pair the Master Magic with an All."

"Which ones does CS Delivery have?" Sephiroth's voice was abnormally level.

Zack had to admit the idea was somewhat chilling. One person being able to have all that power at their disposal was frightening. He had the inane thought that he might almost hope that Cloud was CS Delivery. Even if his young friend had become a terrorist, he'd trust that sort of destructive power to Cloud over the average, run-of-the-mill terrorist.

"He picked up the Huge Magic Materia in North Corel. The Huge Summon and Huge Support Materia were both in Junon."

"That only leaves the Huge Command Materia," Sephiroth said. "Have we located it?"

"Fort Condor. I sent Reno and Rude out last night. With most of the Turks still recovering from Junon, and my unwillingness to send out Soldier and leave Midgar vulnerable, I had no choice. We can only hope Reno and Rude get there first."

Zack couldn't help asking, "Has Reno recovered enough from Junon?" The Turks hadn't accomplished much in Junon in the way of slowing CS Delivery down and an injured Turk was even less useful.

"Recovered enough," Tseng said flatly.

"Does Veld know what's going on?" Sephiroth asked.

"Yes. But he's neck deep in terrorist groups now. He's making headway with Avalanche but with this CS Delivery mess, all the dissident factions are scrambling around madly accusing each other and trying to figure out who really did it so they can either recruit or kill them. We're still not releasing CS Delivery's name in the hopes that someone else will and we'll be able to trace it back to the source."

Zack blurted, "I mentioned CS Delivery to Cloud."

Tseng straightened. "You met with Strife? What happened to the original meeting date and why wasn't I informed? It's only been three days since you arranged the meeting."

"Cloud just showed up," Zack said defensively, voice rising. "I was down in the slums and he was just there and I was trying to keep from freaking out and keep him from freaking out and I asked him if he knew what was going on."

"And his answer?"

"He didn't really answer," Zack grudgingly admitted. "He got really cagey about the people he says have been helping him."

Tseng scowled slightly. "At least if word starts circulating now, we'll know Strife isn't involved with CS Delivery. He would never release his own information since he hasn't made a public appearance."

"Of possibly equal importance," Sephiroth cut in, "Strife has definitely been modified. According to Zack's reports, the young man probably has as much mako in him as me."

"How's that possible?" Tseng asked, incredulity creeping into his tone. "You've been subject to the science department since birth. Not even Genesis or Angeal were at your level when it came to the mako quantities they could survive. Their G cells started to degrade. Are we saying that this trooper, this boy can handle your astronomic mako levels?"

"We're not sure." Sephiroth shot Zack a look.

Zack had to give the Turk something. "Cloud really has grown. It's like he's a couple years older. And his pupils are sometimes cat-slit like Sephiroth's. And he's got more mako shine than me. And he's been implanted with other people's memories. He remembers things he never did. He's convinced someone in Shinra did this to him and refuses to even consider coming back. He thinks he'll end up in a lab somewhere and I agree with him. With Hollander out of the picture, what little restraint was inflicted on Hojo is gone and I'm not comfortable with that until we figure out what he was doing in Nibelheim."

Zack's eyes widened almost comically at the sudden turn of his own thoughts. "Cloud's from Nibelheim. You don't suppose Hojo did something to him before he even came to Shinra do you?"

"Circumstantially," Tseng said, "it's possible."

Sephiroth said, "It could be that Strife's…change was linked to the start of these attacks, but there's no telling if it was accidental or purposeful. If Hojo is responsible, I would vote for accidental. In some way I could see him deciding to create something like CS Delivery but he would never intend for his own research to be destroyed. Even if he was trying to fake being a victim, he wouldn't still be throwing his massive tantrums and demanding he be given CS Delivery when we finally catch him."

Silence passed uncomfortably as they stared and wondered just how deeply this supposed conspiracy went. Tseng finally offered, "I'll redouble efforts to determine what was going on in Nibelheim at both the manor and the reactor."

The Turk's PHS vibrated and rang from his suit pocket. He pulled it out and answered, "Tseng."

With his enhanced mako hearing, he heard Reno's tinny voice on the other end.

"Too late boss. Shit. Sorry Tseng. The locals are throwin' shit as us. Some of that's literally. Rude took a glob to the head. Ruined his damn sunglasses. Whoa – Holy! – Gaia!"

"Reno," Tseng said, tone slightly exasperated. "Try to be a little more clear."

"Before the locals started chuckin' shit we got enough to know that they sold the Huge Materia to that CS Delivery asshole. They threw a special letter from 'im for the vice president at us first. They say the damn freak with his red gunman and the giant cat just strolled up, said Shinra Company shouldn't have the giant hunk of Lifestream, paid them for the shit, and strolled off with it. The damn yokels just up and sold our shit."

"Get back here and file a proper report as soon as possible." Then Tseng hung up on his fellow Turk with a sigh. "There goes that. CS Delivery has all four Huge Materia. We'll see what his letter has to say. I'll go tell Vice President Shinra."

"I think they're ignoring each other," Cloud said, voice almost swallowed by the wind on the cliffs above Kalm.

"It certainly seems so," Vincent said in agreement.

Nanaki asked, "Are we going to do anything about it?"

"I'd like to. With all these stalkers I can't take off my hood. It's humid today." He plucked at the edge of the hood, moodily.

"How about there?" Vincent asked, lifting his chin in a direction slightly closer to the beach than they were aimed. The plateau they were using sloped down toward the low, bumpy hills between them and the beach but in front of them there was a drop off that would allow them to slip out of sight for a few minutes. "You can double back along the beach while Nanaki and I head inland."

Cloud asked, "You can smell the mako on that group back there then?" Not even the heavy scent of salt and ocean masked the smell for Cloud.

Both his companions nodded. Nanaki said, "Every time the wind shifts."

Hints of dry amusement in his tone, Vincent said, "Considering my inhabitants and Nanaki's potential future as a specimen, it would be in everyone's best interest if you handled mako-enhanced individuals until their organizations of origins are determined."

Chuckling under his breath, he nodded. If one thing was radically different between this past and his first past it was this trust from Vincent. The other Vincent rarely sent Cloud on reconnaissance missions, not exactly mistrusting his skills of observation but not giving his somewhat fractured mind the chance to miss something, or to give him an excuse to charge off on his own…like Aerith had.

The other Vincent much preferred to work alone, doing all the reconnaissance himself, then showing up at the opportune time to share all the information he'd uncovered. This Vincent from the past seemed more than willing to share the workload and often relied on Cloud's information. It was rather nice being treated like he wasn't about to fall to pieces if something particularly shocking or stressful happened.

And honestly, he hadn't fallen to pieces in years.

They angled toward the drop off, keeping their steady pace. Before the edge, he asked, "Meet back up at the top when we're done?"

Vincent said, "With our guests."

Cloud nodded. Clearly, the Turk thought it best that they verify the two groups had nothing to do with each other. Since Nanaki didn't argue, he agreed, also.

When the three of them reached the edge of the drop of, they jumped down into the grassy valley some sixty feet below. As soon as Cloud's feet hit the ground, he sprinted for the beach. He didn't wait to watch Vincent and Nanaki head the opposite direction. He didn't need to.

He stopped among some low hills, that wouldn't be quite tall enough to hide Zack, before actually reaching the sand. He slunk through those hills, the constant rhythmic wash of the ocean covering up the little sound he might be making, eyes cast inland as he waited for the barest hint of movement.

The scent of mako grew stronger, blown out to the beach from a sudden, swift breeze. After spending time in Midgar, it was difficult to differentiate between the different grades of mako, what with mako permeating the very air in that city. What he was smelling now wasn't normal.

It didn't bear the metallic tang of industrial mako. It didn't have the ozone flavor of raw mako fountains. It wasn't the muted, acidic scent of Soldiers. It did, however, remind him of the sharp, acrid flare ever-present in the mako Hojo used in the Shinra mansion on him and Zack.

When he remembered the source of that particular kind of mako, he wasn't surprised that he hadn't immediately placed it. Of all the different kinds of mako, it was one he'd rarely encountered.

A flash of metal in the tall grass sloping up to the top of the cliffs brought him to a halt. He caught glimpses of swords and thin lines of glowing mako as the pair ghosted toward where Cloud and the others had disappeared from.

Cloud started moving again, angling around behind them. They would hear him coming, but the faster he moved, the less time they would have to react. The only thing he wasn't sure about was just how much to temper his abilities. They weren't nearly as enhanced as Zack, and they would fight with less caution. Cloud had been careful and he still managed to damage, if not break, Zack's ribs.

With a quiet sigh, he pulled the Butterfly Edge from its harness on his back. He needed a smaller blade to make sure he surpassed the pair's speed but something still weak enough that he wouldn't accidentally cleave them in half. He considered using the Force Eater but was only willing to give up so much in the way of attack power. His opponents were enhanced after all.

When the pair neared the edge of the tall grass, he had the best opportunity to strike. Given their mako-enhanced senses, it wouldn't exactly be a surprise, but he'd take what he could get.

Cutting through the tall grass would be pointless. The rustling would give him away long before he reached them. So he took a running leap up onto one of the low hills and propelled himself off the top, sending himself flying straight up to the top of the plateau to land behind the pair.

They didn't notice his coming quick enough to directly defend against his strike but they both rolled away from the sweeping arc of his blade. They recovered quickly, spinning to bring their long swords together with him in the middle. He jumped, flinging himself backward and over one blade while swinging his own sword into the one he was evading. The extra force sent the man off balance and he almost landed on his partner's weapon.

They regrouped in the next moment and presented a united front. One swept in low, blade at thigh height, while the other jumped about ten feet up to come in high with a downward stroke.

Cloud put on a burst of speed and gave a short hop, bringing his knees nearly to his chest. He twisted his hips to get the angle right and slammed both feet down on the flat of the low-swiping blade. True to his strength, Cloud's opponent didn't release the hilt, but the impact on the weapon when the tip hit the ground snapped the blade in two places with a resounding crack.

In nearly the same moment that Cloud broke the first sword, the Butterfly Edge met the second sword. Cloud's eyes widened behind his goggles as the other sword shattered on impact. Due to the angle of his swing, the metal shards didn't fly directly at him, but the pair he was fighting didn't come out so lucky if the sharp intakes of breath were any indication.

The one low to the ground seemed temporarily stunned by the combination of his broken sword and three bits of shrapnel in his back. The other one came down off balance and fell on landing, one extremely large chunk of his own sword embedded in his leg.

Without giving either opponent time to react, Cloud replaced his sword in its harness and grabbed the upper arm of the one with the shards in his back and dragged him closer to the other one. The second one got snagged by the collar, and Cloud hauled both of them out of the tall grass. He didn't take them too near the drop off, as they might decide to throw themselves off to escape, and shoved them onto the ground. Both were still coordinated enough to keep from exacerbating their injuries.

They sat side by side in the short grass, emotionally impassive in the safety of the helmets masking their entire head. With both of them quiet and compliant, Cloud got a better look at them. Their dull colored uniforms ran with bright blue mako lines, giving them their glow, even in the sunlight. The scent of mako hung heavy in the air. He wasn't sure what this pair's classification was as their uniform and weapon combination didn't match anything he remembered.

He briefly considered running a tiny lightning spell over them to short any electronic surveillance devices but decided not to risk shorting their suits. Disrupting the mako flow might kill them.

"No matter what you do to us, we'll never tell you anything," the one on the right said, voice muffled through his helmet. He prodded his suit around the metal in his leg.

Cloud crouched in front of them, bringing himself to their eye level. "Who said anything about questions?"

For some inexplicable reason, that seemed to be the wrong thing to say as the pair of them froze. Then they visibly relaxed and the one on the left said, "Torturing us to death won't get you the satisfaction of groveling. We've been through worse that you can imagine." His tone twisted disdainfully around that one word.

One side of Cloud's mouth kicked up. "I doubt that." The pair froze again, seemingly more tense than before. Cloud said, "Fortunately for you, I'm not torturing you to death either."

The two exchanged a glance. Cloud wasn't sure why, their faces were hidden by helmets and they couldn't see each other's expressions.

Cloud narrowed his eyes behind his goggles. He felt the faintest sense of Jenova cells. There weren't like what he felt from Sephiroth or the Soldiers he'd encountered here in the past. Perhaps when Cloud had made himself known in Junon, more than just Zack had felt him.

"What do you want?" the one on the right demanded.

"To save everyone," Cloud said simply, smirk tugging on the corners of his mouth despite his attempts to keep his expression flat.

The one on the left scoffed but before he got of some smarmy remark, Cloud added, "I'm told I have a hero complex."

Again with the pair's seemingly useless exchange of invisible glances. If Cloud were one of them, he'd be more interested in removing the sword shrapnel. They had enough mako in them that they'd probably start to heal.

The one on the left asked, "Why'd you attack us?"

Cloud shrugged. "You were following me." At least he managed to keep his expression flat this time. "And me and my partners want to check something. Besides, I figured you wouldn't give up your weapons if I asked nicely."

The pair radiated shock, if nothing else. "What," the one on the right started slowly, as though no longer sure what to make of Cloud, "do you want to check if it's not…an interrogation?"

Cloud stared at them for several long moments, watching the one on the left shift uneasily. Ignoring their question, he said, "If I were to ask you any questions, there would be only two." He held up one finger. "Were you sent to follow me or to speak with me?" He held up a second finger. "Who do you work for?"

Regaining a bit of confidence, the one on the right scoffed. "If you don't know what department we're from then there's nothing worth telling you."

Rather than allow the peon to ruffle him, he said, "I know which department you're from. I meant specifically, who do you work for."

"If you know our department then you should know who we work for," one on the left said.

"On the surface, of course," Cloud said, waving a hand dismissively. "I know who the bosses are." Carefully speaking each word, keeping his tone conversational, he said, "I meant specifically."

Both of them grew even more uneasy at that. Cloud waited.

Then the one on the right said, "We were just supposed to follow you."

"Quiet," the one on the left said uneasily. There wasn't much of an edge to his voice, though, so Cloud figured he'd probably been about to say something, too.

"I see," Cloud said noncommittally. The pair of them practically squirmed under his scrutiny. It actually amused him. He never understood why people would just start talking if he stared long enough. No one ever did it around Vincent. The action had become more pronounced since he started running around in the hoodie. Perhaps the lack of his unruly blond hair flying everywhere had an intimidating effect.

Mentally dismissing the ridiculous notion, he half turned to look inland at the faint sounds of movement. Vincent and Nanaki came up onto the plateau, three men marching in front of them, hands held in the air. Their brown uniforms identified them as easily as the blue and black uniforms of the ones in front of Cloud.

The three of them were littered with grass, making Cloud wonder if Vincent and Nanaki had tossed them around a bit before corralling them. Vincent made the three sit some twenty feet away from Cloud's captives then left Nanaki staring them down to join Cloud.

Cloud straightened but kept his eyes on the pair in front of him. He took several steps back to give himself and Vincent some semblance of privacy. Both knew the mako-enhanced pair would hear anyway, but at least the three under Nanaki's watchful eyes wouldn't.

"Deepground?" Vincent said, eying the two critically.

Cloud nodded. "Can't quite figure out what kind though. They're dressed like DG Soldier but they were wielding swords like the DG Heavy Armored Soldier. Still, though, the swords weren't nearly as big as the ones I've seen before."

Dryly, Vincent asked, "I assume the metal shards everywhere are what's left of their swords."

One side of Cloud's mouth kicked up. No other response was required.

Cloud lifted his chin toward the three brown-clad individuals. "You get anything out of them?"

Vincent said, "Avalanche scouts. We just looked interesting to follow when we left Midgar."

Cloud had carefully watched the Deepground pair during his exchange with Vincent. They only showed indifference and leftover uneasiness. It wasn't like Deepground and Avalanche were likely to collaborate anyway.

"This pair?" Vincent asked.

"Following us. No surprise there."

"Under whose orders?" Vincent's question was slow and measure, and made the Deepground pair stiffen.

Cloud shrugged. "I asked who they worked for, specifically, but didn't press for an answer."

Then the one on the left said, "Tsviets." The word was spoken low and quick. The Avalanche spies wouldn't have heard.

Leaving Vincent's side, Cloud returned to his crouch in front of the pair. In a voice pitched as serious as he could muster, Cloud said, "Nero has to deal with the deadfall first."

And yet another useless exchange of glances.

The one on the right started, "But…Weiss-"

"Might not care," Cloud interjected. He dropped his chin slightly. "You'll remember right?"

Both nodded.

Cloud said, "I might help." He lifted his hands, the appendages already glowing a soft green. When he cast the spell, both Soldiers slumped. Cloud lurched forward to catch the one from falling onto the shrapnel in his back.

Plucking the bits out quickly, Cloud asked, "Get that one out of his leg will you?"

The gunman silently complied casting a Cure on both once the metal was removed.

At some rustling in the tall grass, Cloud straightened and turned. His eyes narrowed behind his goggle at the sounds of stealthy movement headed toward them.

"More?" he blurted in a surprised whisper. "Is all of Gaia out following us today?"

Vincent only huffed a breath. Easily a laugh in the man's repertoire of expressions.

Cloud prowled closer, hand rising to the Apocalypse's hilt. But when flame red hair, attached to the top of a battle-crying man, came barreling out after him, mag rod held ready to strike, he reflexively dodged. Reno hurtled past him and spun back around, easily regaining his bearing. The Turk's eyes flicking over Cloud's shoulder was all he needed to see to know Rude was probably behind him. But Vincent was no longer near the Deepground pair so Cloud didn't worry about anything behind him.

The flicker of surprise on Reno's face confirmed his confidence. Cloud took a measured step forward, deciding how best to handle the overeager Turk this time.

Apparent rage renewed, Reno just snarled at him and darted forward. Rather than dodge, Cloud caught the mag rod with one hand. The electricity surged, sending wild, airborne arcs up Cloud's arm.

Cloud's eyes widened even as his movements stuttered for a moment. Reno took advantage of the hesitation to pull against his grip and aim a side kick at his head. Compensating for the electricity, Cloud ducked below the kick and wrenched the mag rod out of the Turk's grip. Without a wielder, the weapon shut down.

Then Cloud darted in and smacked Reno in the head with the hilt of his own weapon. The Turk stumbled backward and made a startled sound of surprise. He feinted a lack of recovery to throw a roundhouse kick Cloud's way, which Cloud stepped and leaned backward to avoid. Reno followed with a couple punches, reminding Cloud that he was fast for someone who wasn't swimming in mako.

Deciding enough was enough, Cloud smacked Reno in the side of the head with the hilt of the mag rod again. And a third time. The Turk wobbled and stumbled like he was on a dingy on the choppy ocean.

"Stan' still asshole," Reno slurred, "an' figh' like a man." The Turk lurched sideways but Cloud got the impression Reno had been aiming for him.

Cloud tossed the mag rod over his shoulder. It hit the ground behind him with a dull thunk. He darted inside the Turk's range and snaked an arm behind him, taking a firm grip at the base of the man's ponytail. Reno sputtered indignantly and tried to throw a punch. The gesture lacked power, as he was still disoriented, and was quite difficult to execute considering Cloud had complete control of his head.

"Let go of me ya shitfaced ass hat," Reno snarled, attempting a poorly balanced back kick. Only Cloud's grip on him kept him from toppling over.

Cloud dragged the cussing Turk toward the rest of the captives. Vincent, gun pointed at Rude's head, already had the other Turk kneeling between the unconscious Deepground pair and the Avalanche trio. Those three looked about ready to keel over in fear. The one in the middle was shaking and looked about five minutes away from puking. Nanaki looked positively ready to burst out with bestial laughter at any moment .

Knowing Reno would probably attempt something stupid, Cloud didn't let go of the man's hair when he started rooting through Reno's jacket pockets.

"Oi," Reno snapped, "now you're muggin' me? What the hell asshole? Haven't you got enough shit?" The Turk tried to jerk out of his grasp but only succeeded in rocking himself around. His arms fell limp at his sides when Cloud fished out Reno's PHS.

Cloud pushed Reno so he fell on the ground next to Rude. Leaving them for the moment, Cloud moved over to Nanaki and the Avalanche trio. He crouched down in front of them and whispered, "After I cast the spell, the three of you should head back to Midgar." He smiled, unnerving the men if the way they shuddered was any indication. "It'll wear off in about fifteen minutes but I'd be as far from this lot," he waved a hand at the Turks and Deepground Soldiers, "as I possibly could before then. Understood?"

He received three hasty nods.

Putting as little power into it as possible, he cast Toad. The magic flared green around them as they shrunk. Moments later, three rather large amphibians quivered in front of him. He pushed to his feet and ambled back to the others, Nanaki following closely on his heels. The Avalanche troops hesitated only a heartbeat before frantically hopping away as fast as their little legs could take them.

Cloud took the opportunity to examine the hand he'd grabbed the mag rod with. The weapon had actually burned holes through the glove. He flexed his fingers, feeling a slight ache in the muscles and the brittle give of his glove. The glove was useless but the muscle ache surprised him. That was definitely not the same mag rod that Reno had chucked at him in Junon. This one felt like a weak, Bolt 2 spell.

The Turk clearly noticed Cloud's scrutiny of the ruined glove because his smirk had crept back over his face.

Removing the useless glove and stuffing it in a pants' pocket, Cloud flipped open Reno's PHS with the still gloved hand and started scrolling through contacts. There were surprisingly few and were almost exclusively Shinra employees so far as he could tell. There were only a few names he didn't recognize. Finding the one he was looking for, he selected it and started composing a message.

"On the heights above Kalm. Better come and remove the Stop. CS Delivery says hi."

To let Reno know what was in store for him, Cloud kindly leaned down in front of the Turk with the PHS and showed him the message, effectively wiping the pleased smirk off his face, before sending it to Tseng.

"Shit," Reno groaned as the soft green spell gathered in preparation for casting at Cloud's free hand.

AN: Any and all comments, disclaimers, and notes are on my profile page. If I get asked a question enough times, its answer is there too.