The pain in her head had calmed itself down to a dull roar instead of a full-tilt scream by the time they landed in Junon. Lyla checked the time on her phone as she left the ship, waiting for the others to do the same and assemble. Cid was the next one off, though he stood watching for the others, as though to make sure no one was left behind.

Late afternoon, Lyla confirmed. Her father would certainly be home. Good. She had questions for him.

The remaining party members assembled over the next few minutes from various corners of the Shera. Filtering down the ramp with a series of exchanged looks.

It was Cait Sith, having apparently found a permanent home atop Reno's head, who spoke first when they stood together. "So whattaye suggest we do, Lassie?" he asked.

Reno reached up to absently swat Cait Sith's paw away from his line of vision. "Watch where you stick that," he warned, then turned his attention to the brunette standing across from him, raising a brow as she rubbed at her right temple with her index and middle finger.

"We'll talk to Dr. Caraway," she said evenly, wincing slightly. "Dr. Ingram said something about Prometheus. We need to find out who, or what, and where Prometheus is. If we know, we can get to it before Ingram has what he wants. ... I'm assuming my father will know. He was on this project... must have known about the other."

The cat shifted, climbing to Reno's other shoulder. "Do ye think we should all go?"

"Probably not," Lyla admitted. "A smaller group would be best."

"I'll go, of course," Rufus volunteered. "Perhaps my presence will help impress upon him how very dire the situation is." Even now, he tossed out a charming smile, though his voice now had a colder edge to it.

"Maybe yer muscle shoul'wait out here" Cait Sith volunteered, waving a hand at Rude and his ride. "Cannae be too careful, intimidatin'."

"That's fine." Rufus glanced from Reno to Rude and back again. "Go on. Go have a drink."

Rude looked at his partner, and then at the cat.

"Aye. I'll go too." Cait Sith agreed enthusiastically.

Across the ramp, Vincent offered Cid an even look over his folded arms.

Reno smirked up at his passenger. "Glad to have y'along."

Cid shrugged as the door to the ship began to close, turning his back to it now that everyone was present. "I'd like t'come listen if it ain't too much trouble. You should go, though, Vin."

"Is four too many?" Vincent asked, more as a thought aloud than in search of some answer. He stepped away from the side of the Shera, joining the half circle that had formed of the other party members.

"Four should be fine," Lyla told him, dropping her hand away from her forehead and letting it rest atop the bag at her side. "I would like you to come, if you don't mind, Vincent."

Reno raised a brow and turned, steadying Cait Sith by putting a hand on either side of his torso. "C'mon, Rude, let's not waste time. I need a stiff drink." With his back turned to the group, it was much, much easier to hide the snicker he just wasn't able to swallow down.

Cait Sith waved over his shoulder as they headed off.

Behind him, Vincent's brows raised in surprise. But he nodded. "Lead the way, then." he said quietly.

As Reno, Rude and Cait Sith split off on their own, Lyla began to walk in the opposite direction, taking over Reno's post and wheeling the president along as they went. Cid stayed at the rear with Vincent, arms folded across his chest, cigarette perched between his lips, now and then threatening to fall and only dropping a couple of ashes instead.

"Y'look surprised," he remarked quietly.

"I only wonder what she thinks I can add." Vincent replied, keeping easy step with his friend.

"You were there t'see everything, weren't ya?"

"Mn." He nodded. "So was she."

"Maybe girl is countin' on flyin' off the handle," Cid reasoned as they followed. The walk from the airport wasn't terribly far; less than five minutes later they stood in front of one a typical Junon house, tall and narrow like all its neighbors. Lyla stepped away from the president's chair to unlock the door, sticking her head in before stepping through it fully.

"Hello? You home?"

The ex-Turk folded his arms. If he had an opinion on planning for the loss of control, he kept it to himself for the moment. Waiting instead just behind the young Shinra president's chair.

All things considered, the day could have been worse, he supposed.

A faint call of, "Oh! Hello!" sounded from somewhere within the house. The voice was a bright and cheerful baritone. Hurried footsteps drew closer while Lyla pushed the door fully open, beckoning for the others to follow her in without looking back. Cid stepped up to wheel Rufus through as the she stepped aside to make way.

A middle-aged man dressed comfortably in jeans a button-down shirt appeared from what looked to be the kitchen. He was on the tall side, broad without being heavy, clearly the sort of man who took care of himself despite being retired. His hair was probably once brown, now going rather gray, the lines on his face placing him in his late fifties.

"... oh. Company. Well, welcome, come in and make yourselves at-" he paused as his eyes rested on each member of the group. "Mr. President."

"A pleasure to meet you, Dr. Caraway, I've heard great things," Rufus said simply. "Pardon the intrusion."

"It's no trouble, of course," the doctor fumbled, looking puzzled. He froze again when he saw Vincent. A frown flickered across his lips, and for a moment, he looked as though he had seen a ghost. "I know you, don't I," he remarked, not particularly in the form of a question.

The caped man's expression didn't flicker, but he lowered his jaw just enough to hide his mouth entirely from view. "No." He said. "But our pasts have met."

"Have they," Caraway mused aloud, studying what little he could see of the dark-haired man's face. He looked away after a moment, frown still tugging at his lips and making his laugh lines look decidedly less pleasant. "... I'm guessing none of you are here for tea or anything of that nature."

Lyla shook her head, slowly. She opened her mouth to explain, and no sound came out. She paused a moment before trying again. "What do you know about Project Prometheus?" she asked finally, looking squarely at him. She left so much unsaid, but her face said it for her, and Caraway felt sickness begin to mount in his stomach.

"... Prometheus." He echoed, dark brows knit together, concerned and troubled at the same time. "That's what that doctor in Edge has you working on."

"Meant to, maybe," Lyla corrected him. Her voice was lower than she would have liked, quieter; it didn't suit her and she was annoyed with herself for it. She made an effort to approach normalcy. "You and I need to talk. At length. And we will, later. But right now we need to know who Prometheus is so we can get to him before Dr. Ingram. ... Pandora and Prometheus are companion projects, aren't they?"

He shifted uncomfortably. "They are, yes. Prometheus is a little older. Part of a larger project, named later on when Pandora began."

Something... about the way it was said. Something unsettled.

Vincent caught Cid's eye from the corner of his own, wondering if the mounting dread that had crept in behind them was only a figment of his own.

Cid caught Vincent's glance and grimaced in reply. He couldn't shake the feeling that he wasn't going to like whatever was said next. Rufus listened quietly, hands in his lap, eyes cold and very still as they watched Dr. Caraway's every move and nervous habit.

"Prometheus was originally a small offshoot of the Jenova Project," Caraway explained. "It was Professor Hojo's doing. ... they all were, in the end. Gast meant well but got himself in too deep, Hojo's claws were in him until the finish. Professor Hojo injected his unborn son with mako and Jenova cells. Various other things. He never could just stop at that. The child was born and showed early on that he was faster, better, stronger than the rest of us. Sephiroth is known for many things. He is also the Prometheus prototype."

Ah hah. And there it was. His failure come to haunt him again.

Vincent closed the fingers of his human hand, knotting them tight enough for the blunt nails to bite into his skin through the dark glove.

He was quiet a moment, considering. Jaw set so tightly he didn't realize it had begun to ache until he released the tension in order to speak. "You were in the Midgar port facility six months ago." He said evenly, no trace of the turmoil in his tone.

Caraway looked surprised at Vincent's knowledge of the situation, but nodded once to confirm. "Yes, I was. When Hojo died, I saw an opportunity to shut down the project. It took a couple of years to find and buy the information I needed to get in. Didn't do me much good. I never reached where they kept the clones. I was injured badly by a sentry and had to retreat. Haven't been able to get back since." It was then that Rufus noticed the cane their host was leaning on rather heavily, and he frowned in acknowledgement.

"You didn't get hit by a car," Lyla accused evenly.

"Afraid not," he admitted wearily. "I wanted to shut down the life support and put them out of their misery."

"We took care of it," Lyla told him.

"Unless there are more than those in that particular facility," Rufus added.

Well. That explained it. Though it effectively took the knees out of the idea that he had been trying to outrace Ingram. Vincent was quiet a moment.

"Ingram didn't know of Lyla's connection to Pandora." He said at last. "Would he have access to any information connecting Prometheus to Sephiroth?"

"A lot of information about Prometheus came out a few years ago during the Meteor Crisis, though it was never called by that name, that I saw. He may not realize, it may buy some time, but I wouldn't be willing to bet on it. Information on Sephiroth and the cloning project directly linked to him was leaked during the Reunion spectacle. More than that, if he has reached the files on Pandora, and knows any amount about Prometheus, it's likely that he's aware... Sephiroth is named and identified as the prototype in the archives." He frowned, eyes resting on his daughter a moment.

"It wasn't the same for Pandora, because the prototype was... misplaced. No one knows about 'Eve' or her location. It makes sense that Ingram wouldn't know, though if he had ever seen the other projects in person, he would have been able to make the connection."

"It's likely, then," Rufus began, "That Ingram knows precisely who he is looking for."

"Yes, though the prototype lost his 'natural' life... nine years ago. The trouble with using Jenova is that it doesn't give up on the host body so easily. Avalanche dispatched him again a few years ago. Whether he gets up on his own or Ingram has to make an effort is unknown."

"There wasn't anything left to reassemble after the incident in the crater." Vincent frowned. "And no trace of the remnants of the incident two years ago. If Sephiroth is what he wants. Then there must be another location where the DNA is being stored."

"It's entirely possible," Caraway conceded. "Hojo continued trying to create Sephiroth clones to the very last. I wouldn't be surprised if there was still some in storage."

Well. Wasn't -that- just what everyone wanted to hear.

"Then we have to make it before him."

"How will we know where to look?" Lyla asked. "He created those clones everywhere he went. ... Pandora was in one central location, but Prometheus hasn't been."

Caraway shook his head. "The last pair of soldiers he attempted to turn into clones... it was done in Nibelheim. Shinra mansion. The whole town turned into a project, he hired actors to play the part as though the town had never burned."

"Great," Cid gruffed at last. "Just where I wanna be."

Vincent lowered his head, thinking. "There was a library there." He said after a beat. "An archive in hardcopy."

"Then we get there as soon as possible," Lyla reasoned. "Even if the DNA's not there, the files are."

"As good a place to begin as any other," Rufus remarked.

The bar was roughly the same as it had been nights before, right down to the cluster of members who were excited to see the return of the fortune-telling gambling cat.

Rude slid his partner's next beer across the table as he took a seat, himself, watching the ruckus with mild entertainment.

"Gonna need like seven of these," Reno grumbled as he knocked back half of the glass' contents in one fell swoop. "Which means it'll have to be fast if I'm gonna get 'em in before the prez needs us again."

Rude nodded, slouching forward.

"S'pose it has been a long day, aye, laddie?" Cait Sith sighed, sliding down his arm and onto the table. "But what's got ye all needin' tae be drunk?"

"That guy turned into an oozething in front of us, y'know," Reno pointed out, very physically pointing his index finger at the cat beside him. "And it's not like getting drunk is out of the ordinary for our kind. This is what Rude and I do."

"Aye." The cat agreed, playing with the rather overzied dice in his paws. "Tha's a good point."

"Lyla." Rude added with a frown, taking a drink.

The redhead frowned, leaning heavily against the table and slumping so that his chin was cupped in his upturned hand, his shades just slightly crooked on top of his head. "Yeah. Just a shock."

"Wonder wha' they're talkin' about." Cait Sith agreed, mimicking the gesture of the other two men at the table.

"We'll hear soon enough," Reno sighed, taking another drink, slowing down a bit after his rushed start. "... it was weird, you know, seein' all of those tubes holding things that looked like her. It's got me thinking 'Sephiroth' all over again."

"It was kinna eerily familiar, wasn' it."

Rude nodded, his frown deepening a bit. "...like it's starting over."

Reno frowned, polishing off his first mug and signaling the waitress for a refill. "'Cept this time it's closer to home 'cause it's my ex-girlfriend."

Another nod from the large, multiply pierced man to his left.

Cait Sith shifted. "Ye don' think it could really be bad as all that, do ye?"

"Don't know. Head just goes to the worst possible scenario at this point. The way she was acting in the lab, on our way out? Never seen her like that before. Pissed, yeah. Angry, yeah, sad, sure, but not..." Reno paused, squinting into his empty glass. "Calm. Like that. Kind of scared me."

Rude glanced up, fixing his partner with a brief look.

"... yeah, and she shoved me into a wall and it left a lasting impression, I know, I know."

He nodded again, frowning into his beer before throwing it back.

"If she does that when she's not evil, how many walls is she gonna throw me through when she is," he grumbled morosely.

"Come on now, laddie! Ye don' know she'll go all woogaly on us, yet."

"Hypothetically evil," Reno corrected.

"Look at i'this way." He offered in what the cat hoped was a helpful tone. "We beat Jenova once. An' this time, we won' be busy fightin' each other tae boot!"

"Yeah. By killing Sephiroth," Reno pointed out. "Okay, you can't tell, alright? This doesn't leave this table. But killin' her, that would be the shittiest part."

Rude sat back in his chair, frown deepening as he signaled for another beer.

Cait Sith cocked his head. "Oh, aye, laddie. Yer dirty laundry's safe with me."

Reno waved dismissively, starting in on the second drink the waitress had brought him - thankfully, along with a full pitcher. "Yeah. Thanks. You're both pals."

"..." Rude nodded, leaning forward again as he returned to drinking.

"Been awhile." Cait Sith agreed- mostly as a shot in the dark. "Wonder if they had tae fight with im."

"Hmm?"

"'Er da?" The cat frowned. "Ye don' think i'turned intae a fight, do ye?"

"Oh. Hey." Reno frowned again, looking up from his glass. "That would suck. I mean, if he was a monster like Ingram was, too. Don't know though. ... I hope not." His phone rang then as though on cue; he glanced at the screen before flipping it open and putting it to his ear.

"Sir. We have a new destination? ... yes, sir."

"Guess nae then?" Cait Sith guessed, hopping back onto Reno's shoulder easily.

Reno shook his head, pocketing his phone as he shoved himself away from the table, pausing to finish off the contents of his glass before they left. "Didn't give details, but he sounds perfectly healthy. Sounds like it went alright. Besides. Her dad's not a mean guy. Just... large."

"Oh." the robot blinked at him, situating himself more comfortably on the Turk's head. "Aye."

Rude shoved his chair back into the table, smirking all the while.

Reno glared back at his partner. "Don't even start, bra."

The larger man held up his hands.

"Common then, laddies! We don' wanna keep the Captain waitin'!"