Lee, Kuja-ta and Yakov found another rebellion group by the end of the week. As soon as Yakov slipped out Sergei's name they were accepted like long-lost brothers and bombarded with questions of how the older man was doing and how he had been captured by ShinRa. It was a given fact that they would help retrieve him.

Yet as Lee sat by the fire one night with his men and others scattered around him, he felt uncomfortable. He was not in control here – oh no, the man called Orn was the one everyone looked up to – and it was assumed that since Sergei had been kidnapped they had had no one to lead them. For some reason they did not see Lee as the leader-type.

"You say they followed you a short distance and then gave up?" Orn clarified, directing his question to Kuta who had just finished telling of their near-escape from ShinRa. Since Lee was on edge, Kuta had decided to leave out the detail of his sister being kidnapped – or rescued, depending on how you viewed the situation.

"Yes," Kuta inclined his head. "All sounds of pursuit died away although, in case it was a trap, we continued on."

"Wise decision." Orn said with a nod.

"We haven't seen them since, though," Kuta frowned and glanced at his brother who sat beside him with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth lazily. "It makes me wonder what was so important..."

Trailing off, he looked up at the dark sky. Why was Kayli so important to ShinRa that they would send Sephiroth out to get her back? Or maybe it was Liam who was important to them and they only kidnapped Kayli in order to bait him? Besides, such special interest had never been shown to a single Wutai rebellion group before. Sephiroth usually only came when many groups banded together to fight against them.

Orn stretched and cracked his knuckles, a yawn stretching across his mouth.

"So when do we head to ShinRa, then?"

The question took them by surprise and Orn chuckled in amusement as Kuja-ta, Lee and Yakov all looked at him at once.

"As soon as possible." Lee recovered first.

"Excellent. I'll need to show you our secret weapon soon in that case. Not really a weapon, I suppose. Just something we've got up our sleeves and were waiting for the right moment to reveal." Orn said, his eyes piercing into Lee's own.

"Sounds intriguing." Lee said.

"It is."

Orn's eyes twinkled with mischief and Lee frowned slightly. He didn't like how the man could be so laid back when they were in the middle of a war. Why anyone would follow him into battle, Lee did not know.

"When will we discover this secret of yours?" Kuja asked with a raised eyebrow, talking awkwardly around his cigarette.

"Well if you don't want to wait I can show you tonight." Orn got to his feet and turned, signalling to one of his men who nodded and disappeared into a tent he had been standing outside of.

A few moments of silence later, a boy no older than ten emerged from the tent and took slow, cautious steps towards them.

"This is Viktor," Orn introduced him, a grin on his face. Once the boy was in reach, he slapped him on the back. "Viki, these men would like to see your ship."

The boy looked up at Orn nervously before turning around and walking back towards the tent.

"Come on, then," Orn said to them, following the boy. As soon as Lee stood, the other three did too and soon they were all walking after the boy and Orn. The tent looked small, so Lee wasn't sure how they were supposed to fit, but he kept his mouth shut and obediently pushed the tent-flap aside when it was his turn.

The inside of the tent was empty. Lee wondered if he was being led into a trap until he glanced down and noticed Orn was descending into a hole in the ground.

Eyes widening at the prospect of entering an underground labyrinth, Lee wasted no time stepping forward to follow the other man down. He was reminded of his days spent in Junon with old friends when they would travel out to the mountains and explore the natural caves in the rock faces.

And that sparked another memory. One of a young boy screaming and thrashing, covered in his own blood whilst pleading for his life to be spared. Begging to see his sister again. Crying constantly.

Orn turned to stare at Lee curiously when he began to chuckle. It didn't stop his insane cackling, though. To have someone watching was even better. He had loved scaring his friends with his horrific urges.

It was there again. Under his skin like a rushing poison. It had been a week since they had encountered any enemies and even then they had not fought. No blood had been spilled by his hands and he was feeling the cravings again.

"Don't mind Lee," Kuta called forward, apparently having seen the look Orn gave him. "He's probably thinking about murdering someone."

And how very right he was, Lee thought to himself, although he would never say it aloud. Even though he sometimes thought the twins knew more about him that they let on, he would never give them the satisfaction of knowing for certain.

"Ah, he certainly does look the part of a psychopath doesn't he?" Orn chuckled as he finally stepped down into a large, round room. Viki was further ahead, standing beside an enormous ShinRa helicopter that seemed to make the boy look even smaller than he was.

All talk of Lee's insanity ceased as the small rebellion group gathered to stare. None of them could speak for a few minutes, which only seemed to enlarge Orn's ego to double the size it was before – they could tell because the man puffed out his chest in pride.

"How'd you get that thing down here?" Yakov asked finally, his voice sounding slightly choked as he was in such disbelief.

"And how are you planning to get it out?" Lee added, glancing at Yakov's look of shock before back at the helicopter.

"Viki brought it down here piece by piece. It was all smashed up when we first found it but he refused to leave it alone. Smartest kid I've ever known, he is." Orn grinned at Viktor with pride and then continued. "As for getting it out, I figured we'd just blast the roof off."

"That's certainly one way to do it." Kuja muttered, spitting out his cigarette and stomping on it with his heel. "But how's a helicopter going to help us?"

"It'll get us to ShinRa faster for starters," Orn began. "Secondly, it'll provide a quick get-away once we find Sergei."

"How do you know it'll fly?" Lee asked doubtfully.

"One way to find out, isn't there?" Orn said with a huff of a laugh. "C'mon Viki, let's get her started up and I'll fetch the explosives."

Viki turned to the helicopter and opened the door, jumping up into the seat. Lee's eyes widened and he grabbed hold of Orn's arm firmly as the man went to walk past him.

"That kid can fly a helicopter?" he asked in shock.

"Y'know, I had wondered when I first saw you but now you've just confirmed it in my mind. You're not actually from Wutai are you?" Orn asked harshly, making Lee let go of the man and take a step back.

"What makes you say that?"

"If you were born and raised in Wutai, you wouldn't be so surprised." Orn gestured at Yakov and Kuja-ta, all three of who were quite indifferent to the fact that the boy was flicking switches and preparing for the roof to be blown apart so he could fly the helicopter out.

"If this is gonna cause a problem between us, you need to tell me right now." Lee said, wanting to make sure Orn knew he wasn't a pushover. Just because he wasn't born in Wutai didn't mean he couldn't fight for the country.

"No problem." Orn said gruffly, moving past and heading back up the hole.

"Let's go then," Yakov said excitedly. "I wanna see this baby blow from up there!"

Scowling, Lee followed his men up above ground again and stepped aside for Orn to go back down with the explosives.

The sooner they got to ShinRa and found Kayli, the better. He could really use her company about now.

Two weeks. In only two weeks Kayli was up on her feet again thanks to the advanced Heal materia in the hands of the medical staff. Doing theory work while bed-ridden was not her idea of fun, so she was ecstatic to be up and physically active once more.

She hadn't gotten far, however, when she ran into Cloud and Alec. Both of them had visited her regularly, as soon as Cloud had recovered from the mako poisoning, to talk as well as give her work so she didn't fall behind in classes. As Kayli looked at them in the corridor, though, she didn't think they looked too good.

"What's up?" she asked cautiously. Alec was incredibly pale and his eyes were darting around fearfully, whilst Cloud's eyebrows were furrowed deeply.

"Someone's here to see you." Alec said quietly.

In that instant, a panic gripped Kayli and she had to fight just to keep standing. Had Liam followed her out here, all the way to Midgar, just to get her back? Would she ever escape the nightmares from her past which refused to give up the chase?

"Surely Sephiroth... won't he-" Her vision swam. "They can't just..."

"Whoa!" Cloud raised his hands quickly to calm her down. "We don't mean anyone from Wutai! It's just your parents and Alec's family."

The relief from knowing that Liam had not come to take her back was pushed aside by anxiety. Why had Gemma brought them here? Were they going to take her home and stop her from fulfilling her dream – Roy's dream – of becoming a SOLDIER?

"Where are they?" she asked slowly.

"Actually, that's the thing..." Alec mumbled, glancing at Cloud before the two of them stepped aside and two other people emerged from behind the corner.

"Oh Kayli!" her mother exclaimed, tears shining in her eyes as she looked at her daughter and took in the new appearance which was so like the twin brother who was no longer around. "Why didn't you tell us?"

"You wouldn't have let me go." Kayli said softly, doing her best not to break down into tears as well. As much as she wanted to stay at ShinRa, she had missed her parents a lot more than she first realised. Seeing them face to face again... she just wanted to collapse into their arms and be protected from everything in the world that would ever try to harm her – especially Liam.

But if she was going to become a SOLDIER, she had to be strong. She couldn't allow herself to appear so weak in front of her friends either, even though they knew she was a girl and probably expected it.

"For your own good!" her mother said, taking a tentative step closer. "We heard you were sent to Wutai. We've been waiting for almost two weeks just to see you! Thank goodness you're... you look fine."

"I am fine. There's nothing wrong. You should go home." Kayli said firmly.

"When we leave, you're coming with us! Please Kayli, you can't keep up this pretence forever. Sooner or later someone is going to find out – someone who isn't a friend – and then you'll be in so much trouble we won't be able to help you!" her father piped up.

"That's not going to happen!" Kayli snapped. "Even if Lazard or the President does find out, just the fact that I've lasted this long must mean something! I'll fight to stay here, so don't you dare try and convince me to leave before I've even at least taken the SOLDIER exam!"

If Kayli wasn't so preoccupied defending her brother's dream to her parents, she might have been amused by the shocked expressions on Alec and Cloud's faces. They had never seen her so passionate about something before and were surprised by this sudden display of determination.

"If I have to," her father said in a low, threatening tone which made Kayli tense even more, "I will tell everyone you are a girl and drag you back to Junon. Do you have any idea how dangerous it was to go to Wutai? What if you're sent again and... and you see him?"

Obviously, Kayli thought to herself, they haven't been told all the details of what happened in Wutai. Hopefully she would be able to keep it that way.

"I'm not leaving." Kayli shook her head. "Try as hard as you want, but with Sephir-"

An alarm suddenly rang out in the corridor, making Kayli freeze up and instinctively tilt her head to the roof where the noise spilled from. Along with the noise, red lights began flashing in the corridors.

"What's going on?" Kayli's mother asked fearfully, trying to be heard above the sound of the alarm.

"It's a red alert!" Cloud said, grabbing Kayli's parents and beginning to steer them down the corridor. Whenever there was an emergency, orders were to either hide or go somewhere to wait for instructions. Cloud was taking her parents to hide.

"Wait, what about Kayli?" her mother screamed, fighting to try and get back to her daughter. Cloud held her firmly however, despite his small form, and continued to drag them down the corridor.

"I'll look after her, don't worry!" Alec called after them before clenching his teeth, grabbing Kayli's arm and running in the opposite direction. It was a good thing Kayli's leg was better or she wouldn't have been able to keep up with him.

After hurtling around countless corners and almost crashing into many other ShinRa employees, Alec and Kayli found themselves surrounded by others all waiting anxiously for instructions.

Angeal was standing in front of the crowd, already assigning certain people to different tasks. Not wanting to wait longer before finding out what was happening, Kayli pushed through to the front of the crowd and tried to get his attention.

"Angeal! Sir, please!"

"What is it?" he asked, looking over at her after sending a couple other regular soldiers down the corridor at a run.

"What's happened?" Kayli asked.

"The Wutai prisoner has escaped." Angeal said with a sigh, watching her carefully as he was unsure how she was going to react to this news.

"With or without outside help?" Kayli asked immediately, doing her best to keep formal in her question and not appear stressed or worried at all. By the looks of things, Angeal was impressed with her down-to-business attitude.

"No outside help. He escaped during a routine interrogation session with some Turks and should be fairly easy to track down since he is injured and leaving a blood trail." Angeal explained.

"Leaving a blood trail? Why hasn't he been found yet?" Kayli asked in confusion.

"That's the weird thing," Angeal said in exhaustion, wiping the back of his hand across his forehead. "We tried to follow the blood trail but it split off in multiple directions and each one of them eventually ceased. I don't know how he did it but he can't possibly keep it up forever."

"You mean he's already had time to fake different trails and somehow stop the bleeding so that he can now move around undetected?" Kayli gasped.

"Like I said, I don't understand it." Angeal said.

"I don't like the sound of this at all," Alec said with a frown from beside Kayli. "Are you sure he had no outside help?"

"Not as far as we know..." Angeal murmured, staring off into the distance anxiously. "It worries me that other Wutai soldiers may have gotten into the building without being seen."

"Where's Sephiroth? Maybe he knows more about what's going on." Kayli suggested, clenching her hands into fists as she tried not to think about her parents, Gemma and Gemma's parents all being in the ShinRa building while there was a possibility that more than one Wutai soldier was also wandering around unseen.

"I'm not sure," Angeal shrugged honestly. "But if you're gonna go looking for him, you may as well do a sweep of floor 49 while you're at it."

"Sure," Kayli nodded. "We'll get on it right away."

She and Alec hurriedly moved away then, allowing Angeal to give out more instructions to others as well. Rounding a corner, Kayli was about to move into a jog when Alec grabbed her arm and stopped her.

"What's wrong?" she asked as soon as she saw his eyes. The fear in them reminded her of what she herself was feeling.

"I know I told your parents I'd look after you," Alec said nervously. "It's just... I have to find Gemma and make sure she's okay. You understand, right?"

Kayli smiled lightly and nodded. "Go ahead, I'll be fine."

"I'm so sorry I'm making you go by yourself-"

"Roy!"

Kayli turned at the voice in time to see Davis and Jensen running up and grinned weakly at them. Jensen still had light bandages over his eye from where he'd been hit with shrapnel but as far as Kayli was concerned, he looked a lot better than when she'd first seen him.

"Guess you won't be alone after all." Alec said.

"Go find Gemma and tell her I'm fine. Promise?" Kayli asked, turning her attention back to Alec for a moment. He nodded with a smile and was suddenly hugging her tightly, catching her by surprise.

"Stay with Davis at all times," he murmured into her ear and she giggled in response. When they pulled apart, Alec gave a quick wave and then dashed off as fast as he could.

Davis glanced at Jensen before looking back at Kayli. Since the other boy didn't know she was a girl he was going to have to keep calling her Roy for now. "Roy, you can walk!"

"Yeah, I got out today." Kayli grinned happily.

"Just in time for the red alert," Davis shook his head with a chuckle. "Have you received instructions yet?"

"I'm heading to floor 49," Kayli said, setting off in the right direction as they spoke. "The Wutai soldier they had in custody has escaped and there may or may not have been outside help involved."

Davis, walking beside her, shot her a worried look which she ignored.

"We're to keep an eye out for the prisoner and find Sephiroth as well to see if he can help." Kayli finished.

"And you think he's just sitting around in his office while there's a red alert?" Jensen asked with a quiet scoff.

"Angeal didn't know where he was so this is the best guess we've got," Kayli shrugged as they approached the elevator and pressed the button. "Maybe we'll find the prisoner."

"Hopefully we won't," Davis muttered, more to himself than anyone else.

Kayli glanced across at him briefly, her nerves shining in her eyes, before she stepped forward into the elevator and pressed the button for floor 49.

With Hojo currently in another room due to the sudden red alert, Edvard found himself alone in the main laboratory room. As soon as the alarm had started and the red lights began flashing, Hojo had cursed and begun running around to ensure none of his experiments had escaped. He had also managed to order Edvard to stay where he was right before he left the room in his frenzy.

Now, the boy wasn't quite sure what to do. He didn't know what the emergency was about and since he wasn't allowed to leave he wouldn't be finding out any time soon. What could he do while he waited for Hojo to come back?

Inadvertently, his eyes wandered over to the filing cabinet that stood at the side of the room. There was something he had been wanting to check for a while and simply had no chance to do, but should he risk it now?

Ever since he had heard about Cloud being rejected from the SOLDIER program because of his inability to adapt to mako, he had wanted to see the data records to try and find out exactly what had gone wrong. Every time he asked, however, Hojo had made some excuse about him not being allowed to see the information of a friend.

Tingling with adrenaline, Edvard took quick steps towards the filing cabinet and hurriedly opened one of the drawers, flicking through the files in search for Cloud's.

It took him a while before the correct file was in his hands and he opened it up to begin reading. The words didn't make sense at first, but the more he read the more he understood. He remembered what Hojo had told him about mako and did his best to apply that knowledge to what he was discovering now.

His hands were shaking. Whether it was from nerves, rage or excitement he didn't know. He was so caught up in the information that he didn't even flinch when Hojo strode back into the room and clapped his hands together happily.

"Hey- what are you doing?" Hojo suddenly squeaked, noticing the file in the boys hands.

Edvard looked up angrily, deciding it was rage making his hands shake after all. "Cloud should be allowed to be a SOLDIER."

"You don't understand," Hojo sighed in annoyance. "Just because he passed all the other tests doesn't mean they can overlook his problem with mako."

"But there is no problem! Not one that should keep him from becoming a SOLDIER, at least!" Edvard shot back.

"His body rejected it! That's a problem!" Hojo snapped.

"But his mind accelerated! If he had been allowed more time his body would have caught up and excelled as well!" Edvard said.

"Yes, yes," Hojo shook his head. "But after a few days he would have died. His body is not strong enough yet."

"Then he has another chance? He can train some more... then try again?" Edvard asked.

"Oh no, he'll never become a SOLDIER," Hojo said with a horrible laugh. "When his body is strong enough to cope with mako I want to be in full control of what happens to him. It's bad enough that I can't do all the experiments I want on Sephiroth since his beloved SOLDIER friends are protecting him from me. I'm not going to let such a wonderful specimen like Strife be taken away into the program."

Edvard watched in horror as Hojo went back to his equipment, adjusting things and preparing chemicals for his next experiment.

What had he gotten himself into when he agreed to be the man's apprentice?