Disclaimer: I don't own FFVII, Crisis Core, Before Crisis, or any other part of FFVII.
AN: I'm back :) Anyway, This chapter was originally supposed to be about twice as long. However, it was nearly twice as long, and I still had a decent bit to write, so I decided to cut it off early and split the chapter so you guys could have something. It has been a few weeks, after all, so I didn't want to drag on for too much longer without so much as a word. Anyway, since it's a split chapter, expect the next update to come earlier than usual.
"You!" Before the man had even completely entered, Cloud had crossed the room, gripped him by the throat, and slammed him into the wall. Much to his aggravation, the action seemed to amuse the scientist more than anything. Seconds later, two soldiers ran into the room, nightsticks drawn.
"Professor!" Before the two could act, Hojo raised his hand in a dismissive gesture, seemingly calm about the whole situation.
"Quite the aggressive specimen, aren't we? But are you certain you want to act so violently with your friend here so close?" Hojo gestured towards Aerith, who was watching the scene unfold with concern. "I'd hate for something to happen to the last of the Ancients because you couldn't control that temper."
Cloud glanced back at her for a moment, and gave Hojo's neck one more squeeze before dropping him and stepping back. He couldn't kill the man, not when Aerith could get hurt, but he could at least cause the man a little misery. Straightening himself out, Hojo took a moment to wipe the nonexistent dust from his lab coat before looking over Cloud.
"Well, I must admit this is a surprise. I thought you might actually be one of the successful specimens, but it seems you've recovered. And with far more aggression than before, no less. I'll have to look into that, though I suppose I'll still have to label you as a failure in the Nibelheim Project. After all, the Reunion has already begun, and you aren't responding to the call." As Hojo continued to speak in low tones, Cloud had the feeling that the man wasn't really talking to them anymore. It seemed as though he was talking more to himself than to the other occupants of the cell.
"Ah, but now I've digressed. I'm afraid our time together is at an end for now. I'll return to continue your study when I've finished preparing another subject for my next project." And with that, Hojo left the room, the two guards following shortly. As the door closed behind them, Cloud turned to Aerith.
"Reunion? That must've been what I was talking about."
"But what reunion was he talking about?"
"I…I'm not sure." He closed his eyes, trying to remember anything he might have learned about this "Reunion" during his time in Nibelheim or with Zack, but came up with a blank. Shaking his head, he looked towards Aerith again.
"Whatever it is, it can wait. With all his rambling about new experiments, I think it's time for us to leave."
"Have a plan?"
"…Not yet. But I'll figure something out."
In Sector Six, there's a place called Wall Market. This section of the city is unofficially owned by a man known to most as Don Corneo, and Shinra rarely bothered to enforce their rule in this place. This man going by the name of Corneo lived in a large building near the center of Wall Market. And in this area, various women with what some considered questionable professions often spent their time, generally at the Don's request.
However, there was a different girl there this particular day. The sixteen year old brunette was currently standing in front of the "guard" who prevented anyone from entering the Don's mansion without his permission, a boy of the same age and a slightly older ex-SOLDIER standing to the side watching the show.
"What about "move" don't you understand?"
"The Don tol' me not to let anybody in."
"I'm his niece. You've seen me before, you know that. We want to talk to my uncle, so move it."
"I'm jus' doin' wha-"
"You know my uncle's not going be happy that you were so mean to me."
"I'm not-I mean, I'm not tryin' to…Okay, okay. But I'm not takin' the heat if he gets mad."
"Good boy." She gave him a pat on the head, before waving her companions over.
"Alright, Uncle's gonna see us now."
"Thanks Vina." The younger of the two boys gave her a quick one-armed hug.
"No problem Jin." They walked into the building, and stopped as they reached a door at the top.
"Just so you know, my uncle's a big perv."
"Huh?" Zack filed the information away in his mind, but he wasn't really sure how that was relevant.
"Nothing, nothing. Just thought you might want to know. If you put on a dress, I think you'd just about be pretty enough to register on his radar. We actually had a guy who tried that once." It was safe to say that this left Zack flabbergasted. Pushing the door open, she walked inside, Jin and Zack following behind.
"Uncle Corneo?" At the sound of her voice, a chubby man looked up from his desk, and gave them a big grin.
"Vina! Come here and give your uncle a hug." She walked forward to give him the hug, as Zack watched on awkwardly, feeling a little unnerved by the glances the Don was shooting his way.
"So what brings you here? And who's your new friend?"
"We need a big favor. This guy here needs to get to the upper plate."
Corneo nodded a few times. "And the trains have been shut down due to the attacks. That's a big favor to ask."
The girl pouted, looking up at her uncle with a sad look. "Please, Uncle Corneo?"
"Hmm…" He glanced over at Zack again. "Don't I know you?"
"I…Don't think so."
"Yes, I do know you. You're that SOLDIER that helped us out during the outbreak of monster attacks a few years back." The Don took on a thoughtful expression, pacing around the room.
"Well, I can't get you on a train. Even I can't do that. But I do have something that might help."
"I'd appreciate anything, man."
"It's not very common knowledge, but the city's inner walls can be used to reach the surface. Before Shinra's major advances in Mako Energy and robotics, when the city was a lot smaller, they needed to perform maintenance manually. They stopped performing manual maintenance about eight years ago, but the codes to get in haven't changed, and security is probably light, if there's any at all."
"Do you know the codes?"
"Yes, I do."
"…Can I have 'em?"
"Well, you saved my life a few years ago. That's at least worth the information. But you'll owe me for the codes. I would be in much more trouble with Shinra if they found out that I gave you those."
"Alright, alright. I'll pay you back sometime. Can I have the codes?"
Corneo smiled. "Just let me write them down. And SOLDIER?"
"Yeah?"
"This doesn't reach Shinra ears."
"Of course not."
"Alrighty then. We just put these numbers in here…" As Zack fiddled around with the keypad that would unlock the doors into the maintenance stairwells for the Sector Six wall, Tifa and Barret stood watch, making sure to keep any eye out for anyone who looked suspicious. Besides themselves, of course. Barret hadn't wanted the entire group to come in case something went wrong, so that someone could still watch Marlene, and possibly find a way to devise a rescue. Barret was their unofficial "leader," so he felt obligated to help the people who'd helped them. Naturally, Tifa was the other obvious choice regarding who to send. With one of her friends, and someone she quite clearly wanted to be more than friends with, they doubted they'd be able to convince her otherwise.
Hearing a cheery laugh, the two sentries turned to look at Zack, standing in front of the open entrance with a huge grin spread across his face.
"You two ready to go?" Walking over to him, Barret poked his head through the door, and looked up.
"…That's a lotta stairs."
"Oh, don't be such a baby, Barret." Tifa brushed past him, heading for the staircase with Zack in tow. "How bad can it be?"
Four hours later, in an alley outside of Shinra Headquarters, Zack was eagerly jumping from foot to foot, obviously overjoyed that they were finally within sight of the Shinra building. On the other hand, the two more human members of the trio weren't as excited. Or at least, they were too tired to show it.
"Awright…never…wanna see…no more stairs…" Barret looked up to the other two, laying on his back with his arms spread out.
"I-It wasn't," Tifa was leaning forward, hands resting on her knees. "Wasn't s-so bad."
"Alrighty guys! We're just about there. Now we just have to get to the upper floors. That's where they'd probably be holding 'em."
As Zack walked towards the building, Tifa straightened herself out, and Barret sat up, looking at the cheery man.
"Somethin' wrong in his head, I'm tellin' you. Lost in a tunnel full 'a stairs for four fu-"
"Just let it go, Barret. It's not worth getting upset over. Now what do you say we see if we can rescue those two?"
"Awright, awright." Following Zack, they left the alley, and caught up to him near the stairs leading to the entrance. Looking the area over, Tifa turned to Zack.
"We're not just busting in there, right?"
"Well, uh…That was kinda the plan." Zack's grin turned sheepish, as he scratched the back of his head.
Barret grinned, holding up his gun arm. "Sounds like a plan to me."
Ugh. Men. "We can't just break in. It'll attract way too much attention. We need something more subtle. There's some kind of entrance over there," She pointed to the right side of the building. "That should do, shouldn't it?"
Hm…Wasn't that some kind of maintenance stairwell? I never did see what it actually was. Either way, Angeal said it wasn't very secure. "Yeah, that'll work."
"Aw, fine. You two ain't no fun."
As they entered, looking upwards at the stairway leading into darkness, Zack was pretty certain Barret's eyes were watering.
"…Son of a-"
As Barret cursed Shinra, gods, fate, and whatever else happened to cross his mind that could have possibly been responsible for creating "endless staircases," other events were about to unfold further up in Shinra Headquarters. While listening to Aerith's tale of Zack's rather unusual metal wagon, Cloud was sitting on the "bed" on the opposite side of the room, trying to figure out how to escape. Honestly, they weren't in the greatest position. With the experiments, he had more than enough raw power to deal with the average soldiers that would be stationed throughout the building, but Shinra HQ was also home to a number of SOLDIER personnel. Not to mention that both he and Aerith were completely unarmed, and she didn't really seem like the fighting type anyway.
Aerith was in the middle of telling him about a Shinra scientist's interest in Zack's bizarre wagon when the door opened and Hojo stepped in, flanked by four soldiers.
"That one." He pointed at Aerith. "And hurry up. We don't have time to waste." The soldiers moved forward, and Cloud moved to put himself in front of Aerith. Before he could try to stop them, he felt a hand on his shoulder.
"It's alright." She lowered her voice. "Not now. Just wait." He turned back towards her.
"But-" She put a finger to his lips, shushing him.
"Don't worry. I have a feeling that you'll get a chance soon." As Cloud tried to puzzle out what she was talking to, Aerith followed behind Hojo, the soldiers filing out behind him as they always seemed to.
Within a matter of minutes, Cloud was certain he knew what she was talking about as he felt the familiar sensation of being summoned somewhere, called to by an unidentifiable force. He'd felt it before at the church, though it was far more severe then. It seemed she really had healed him. Knowing that the only things Hojo genuinely seemed to care about were his experiments, and what would happen if his specimens were lost, Cloud clutched at his head as though he were in pain, and after a few moments, dropped to the floor.
Just have to wait.
Hojo was observing the specimen that he was planning to use for his breeding program for the Ancient when one of the no-name scientists who were supposed to assist him rushed into the room and stopped before him, panting.
"Professor," He rushed out. "The specimen from the Clone Project collapsed in his cell. They caught it on the security cameras and we came to inform you immediately."
"You came to me before checking on the specimen's condition? Idiot!" When they didn't move, he raised his voice in frustration. "Well, what are you waiting for!? Go make sure the specimen is undamaged you fools!" As the two ran from the room in borderline terror, Hojo sighed in annoyance. He really needed more competent assistants.
Little did Hojo know that, by pulling the guards away from the primary security center, and in turn the cameras throughout the building, he was giving two eco-terrorists and an ex-SOLDIER all the time they needed.
AN: Well, there we are. The rescue has started. Next time, we get to see the rescue, have a reunion or two, and hopefully see a nod or two to another certain game series that I'm fond of.