Disclaimer: I make no money from this work. Anything recognizable to the Final Fantasy VII series and its associated parts belongs to Square Enix and affiliated companies.

Green Dreams

Chapter Twenty-Three: Getting a Leg Up

"This is idiotic." Biegel huffed, crossing his arms and looking away like a moody child. Cloud had easily ignored his stream of negative commentary throughout the explanation, but Dan hadn't been so mature about it.

"If that's all you have to say, then keep your mouth shut!"

"Dan." At Cloud's voice, Dan relaxed slightly, eyes still locked on Biegel.

He pouted though as he turned to Cloud. "It's not like he has to be here. He can just-"

"No. He knows the plan, so he's going along with it no matter what," John cut in.

"We could just tie him up and leave him in a back room. Maybe under a desk?" Aaron suggested, side-eying Biegel who cursed him loudly for the idea.

Cloud watched his team bicker as he sat on a desk. They were in the room the proctor had left them in on the ground floor. It was barren, with just the skeleton of what an office building needed: desks and cubicles, filing cabinets and empty trash bins. Cloud was seated on top of the manager's desk, with John leaning on the wall of a cubicle while Aaron manned the chair. Dan had commandeered another chair, and Biegel had taken to brooding across the aisle from them.

He had laid out a plan he had hammered out in his head for weeks now, and it had a good reception amongst the group, even John agreeing that it could work even if it was certainly unorthodox. Then Beigel had to open his mouth, and things had gone sour.

"They'll fail us for destroying property, and I'm not failing for something as dumb as that."

"That's the third time you've said that, and like I said before," Aaron swiveled in his chair to give the boy a sardonic grin. "They want us to wage a mock war here. Destruction of the building is inevitable. Cloud's idea is just…intentional destruction."

"There's no way I'm following this."

John pitched in now. "This is the military. It's not up for vote. You follow the leader's orders and don't ask questions."

Biegel scoffed, "He isn't my XO."

They were wasting precious time argueing about this, and as far as Cloud was concerned he was going forward with the plan, Biegil along for the ride or not. "You can stay and work with the rest of the team, or you can leave and suffer the consequences," he interrupted, laying down an ultimatum. Everyone waited for Biegel's response, but Cloud already sensed which way Beigel was going to turn. He fingered his gun.

"…I'm leaving."

The responses from the others fell on deaf ears as Biegel pushed off the wall and headed down the aisle, his exposed back to the group. Cloud hoisted up his gun and cocked it, barely even glancing into the sight before firing a single shot. The bright blue paint ball splattered against the center of Biegel's back, knocking him to the floor with a shout. Cloud pulled back the gun, ignoring the shocked reactions of his teammates.

"In war, defectors are executed if caught to prevent secrets, strategies, and troop movements from reaching the enemy." Cloud relaxed his grip on the gun and strode over to Beigel's sputtering body that was just beginning to sit up. "You've failed."

Cloud turned back to the group that was staring at him. Dan looked shocked, Aaron impressed, and John a little of both.

"W-what are you going to do with him?"

Cloud pointed out the camera in the corner of the room to Dan. "They'll come and collect him."

Reno hated his team.

Riley and Mark were two boys who came from a rather classy neighborhood outside Junon. They'd joined the military because they'd been useless anywhere else, and only proved to be more useless as time went by. Reno had a basic profile of all the cadets in his year, and these two had messed with people constantly, though perhapsunfortunately they hadn't messed with the kind that would kill them for it. Yet. Reno had been ready to introduce them to some of those people within the first minute of meeting them.

Stojan was the self-proclaimed leader of Team 6. He came from a military family and had been spoiled rotten all his life. He expected to fly up the ranks because his father had been a colonel, and he was a complete bastard. Stojan had proudly claimed his father was known for his fashionable military boots—something about buttons or black-on-black strips, the redhead didn't understand or care. Reno was sorely tempted to point out that being known for your designer boots as a colonel was probably not something to be proud of. Stojan was, as far as Reno was concerned, a stuck up twit who looked like the type to run at the first sign of trouble.

It was people like these guys that really pissed Reno off. They'd lived on leather couches all their lives and thought they were better than he was or that they knew more than Reno. So what if they'd gone to the Golden Saucer and toured around occupied Wutai? They were in the military—those things weren't useful. Had they ever had to duck and run while under fireReno had? Ever had to lie and cheat and make someone bleed 'til the told they truth? Reno had. Bastards had no idea what real life was like.

It just worked him up more and more from the moment he'd sat down at the table. The first word out of Mark's mouth had been "slum rat" and it had all just gone downhill from there. That term had been practically polite to the other ones they knew, though Reno had heard worse, not that it still didn't totally piss him off.

They were barely into the exam and Reno had already nearly broken Stojan's nose, given Mark a black eye, had his lip split when Riley hit him with a cheap shot, and ripped the cuff and several buttons off his shirt. He'd had to fix it with safety pins later so it didn't keep gaping open.

They were on the third floor, sitting in the hallway between the elevators and the stairs, waiting for someone to come and attack them. Stojan seemed to think a good strategy was to lay in wait around the corner, peek around if they heard something, and fire when they saw someone. Reno thought he was a dumbest asshole in the exam.

The other cadets of his team were on their side of the hallway trying to come up with a long-term plan to win. So far all their ideas were ludicrously farfetched, and Reno's side commentary wasn't helping.

"What about the cameras," Mark said, glancing deliberately up at the one in the far corner watching them. Reno had another in his sights, wondering if he might creep out the SOLDIER watching it if he stared hard enough. He was that bored.

"Maybe we could shoot all of them?"

"It'd be a waste of ammo, Riley. Come on, Planet knows how many there are. Probably can see every team."

If Reno kept rolling his eyes this hard he'd give himself a headache. "You wouldn't be able to hit the camera since your aim's so bad. Might as well leave them and wait for someone to try hacking them."

He was being perfectly sarcastic. Reno wasn't stupid; he knew SOLDIER wouldn't leave around any way to access the cameras. Not to mention, breaking into their system would be like an act of war against them, not the other teams.

Clearly, Reno's logic forgot to take into account Stojan, Riley, and Mark's combined idiocy. If any three people could talk themselves into doing something ridiculous, it would be them.

"Yo, riffraff, what did you say?"

Reno flipped Mark the finger without turning. He was a good ten feet away from the others and that was as close as he was getting. He heard some muttered voices from where they were sitting, and then the rustling of clothes and shoes as someone stood up. From the weight of the footsteps, Reno had to guess it was Riley, the largest boy of the group.

He could feel him looming over his seated position against the wall, his shadow thrown off to the side by the fluorescent lighting. Reno gripped the knife resting innocently in his lap.

"Did you say we could hack the cameras, arps?"

Reno didn't budge, knowing what would come next.

Riley wrapped one burly hand around his arm, exposing the soft armpit as he did so. Reno slammed the blunt end of his knife up and into the unguarded area, causing Riley to let go with a shout of pain.

"Don't touch me," Reno said in a dark tone, pushing away the kneeling cadet holding his arm protectively to his chest.

Mark was on his feet and coming towards him as Reno stood. "You ass scum!" He charged straight at Reno, who ducked down at the last second and swiped the legs out from under Mark. The boy went down hard on his tailbone and didn't get the chance to sit up before Reno was crouched on top of him, one foot digging into the cadet's knee to hold him down.

"Look little boy, you've been saying shit about me and the other half of Midgar but you grew up in a nice, safe neighborhood with dogs, fences, and police, and I suggest you go back there. Because this town? This is where I grew up, and things are a little different here. Your dog gets eaten when you're hungry, the fences are hotwired with electricity, and the police shoot to kill. So why don't you take the golden spoon out of your mouth and shove it up your ass?" Reno dug the knife into the boy's throat one more time just to hear him whimper before standing up and casually brushing himself off.

Stojan stood, his face turning puce in his anger. "Guttersnipe, cock-sucking, bastard! Get the fuck out of here! We don't need you! We'll leave your ass out to dry and see how long you last!"

Reno shrugged as he let go of Mark, who had a fine sheen of sweat dotting his brow. As he thought, the kids didn't hold up under pressure. "Your funeral."

When he walked past Stojan to reach the stairs, the boy deliberately shoved the butt of his gun into Reno's stomach, no doubt trying to hurt him. Reno grabbed the butt of the gun before he could complete the motion, and shoved the barrel of it back into Stojan's soft stomach, causing the boy to double over. He'd picked that one up from Cloud. "Don't underestimate me. I've killed for less."

Reno grinned as he turned his back on them and headed down the stairs. That had felt good, but he couldn't believe fops like those kids actually existed.

He headed down the stairs, trying to think of where he could go now. He'd been thankfully ousted from his team, so he would need a safe place to hold out in until he could find a splintered group to join up with or some other way to make it through this exam on his own. Nothing he couldn't handle.

Reno went all the way down to the first floor, taking care to move quietly on the stairs so he wouldn't alert any other stupid teams hoping to ambush people in the stairwell. Once he made it down there, he located the guardroom not far from the main entrance and slipped inside. There were double doors, one made of bulletproof glass and the other a heavy metal, and a swivel chair seated before several cracked and splintered monitors. The keyboards were trashed, wiring pulled out of the computers and even the walls.

Reno paused as he saw this, but when he realized what the damage to the room was, he started to laugh. If this little guardroom with three monitors were smashed, then how badly destroyed would the main security room be? Stojan, Riley, and Mark were screwed. And they deserved it far as he was concerned.

Reno opened the thick metal door leading back into the hallway, deciding a little scouting around would be best before settling in for a time. He had just touched the door when he heard voices around the corner. The redhead ducked back down into the room, peeking out the glass window to see which team it was.

Cloud, much to Reno's shock, came around the corner, talking swiftly to his group in a low voice. Reno couldn't hear him through the bulletproof glass, but Cloud was outlining the details of the plan now that everyone was on board, and so far there was a mixture of excitement and nervousness in the group. It was probably a little extreme, but Cloud knew that the ante would just keep rising over the next two weeks, so they needed to start out strong and with a major advantage. Not to mention, after all the things Cloud had seen, unconventional ideas were often the best. He was just about to walk past the guard booth when the door opened and Reno stepped out.

Cloud's gun whipped up so fast it was a blur. John jumped back several paces to give him space, while Dan let out a shout and Aaron covered his heart with his hand when he realized it was Reno.

"Yo, Cloud."

Cloud only lowered his gun slightly. "Reno. What are you doing here?"

Reno smirked. "You'll never guess what my team's planning to do."

Team 10, with their newest member Reno, stood in front of the rightmost elevator, Cloud positioned at the front. The building had two elevators and luckily both seemed to be on the first floor still. No cadet team was quite stupid enough to risk giving their position away with the dinging of the door opening—at least not yet it seemed.

"I'll climb up to the roof of the elevator," Cloud said, indicating the doors. "When I stamp my foot, that's the sign to move up to the seventeenth floor; not the eighteenth. The elevator should move slow enough that I can do it without having to stop at every floor."

"Why don't you just drop one?It would save time." John turned completely around to look at the redhead, who had a cocky look on his face. He'd only just been given the barebones of Cloud's plan. "We only need one elevator, right? Why not stop anyone from using the other one? It shouldn't be that hard to break it."

"You're kidding, right?" Dan sputtered, looking positively horrified.

"Drop what's gotta be a five-thousand pound elevator seventeen stories? We could do serious damage to the building," Aaron said, looking uncharacteristically serious.

"And how would you break the cables? Those things hold thousands of pounds and they're probably some kind of steel," pointed out John. "They're made to not be broken." Everyone was looking skeptically at Reno.

The redhead waved away their concerns though. "Look, snap or unwind the cables and the elevator'll drop and hit the ground, probably just damage the basement-"

"-Which is where the foundation of the building is!" Dan interjected.

"Right, right. But there's no one down there. We all saw the doors to the stairs down to the basement, and those suckers were welded shut."

"Why can't we just take the elevator down to the basement?" Aaron bemoaned.

"Because SOLDIER wouldn't allow the elevator to go to that floor if they blocked the stairs. We have to fix the elevator to go down there first." Cloud turned to Reno. "But dropping the other elevator would be faster. Are you willing to do it?"

"Sure." Reno grinned.

"I'll go with him," Aaron piped up suddenly. "I'll stay inside the cab until we drop it so no one gets in it."

Cloud nodded. "Right. Reno, you'll have to be able to jump off onto the top of our elevator or you'll drop with it." He shot both Reno and Aaron a serious look before he hit the button for the elevators.

"Sure thing, Captain," Reno mocked with an accompanying salute.

Tseng leaned against the belly of one of the smaller airships and stared out the open hangar door at the hazy desert horizon. The heady smell of fuel, metal, grease, and paint hung all around the cavernous building. It was probably as toxic as the drug dens under the plate, but Tseng couldn't bring himself to care. He liked the view of the sky out the open end of the hangar, and the solitude he could get here. With the air and space programs shrinking with every budget meeting, the hangar had grown to be a place he frequented more and more.

He was here today thinking about a number of things, mostly Reno, the implications of what he'd said, and best of all, how to deal with the rascal. Reno had been cleverer than he'd guessed, and the cadet had bought himself much needed time with the Strife-ploy. Now that he was in the exams he was out of touch for a while, but Tseng had his lead now.

"Cloud," he muttered, a little annoyed. Reno had known using that word would throw Tseng right into Strife's direction, and he'd wasted valuable time digging up nothing on the blond cadet. Strife had been a suitable distraction with his own complicated situation and history, but not the kind of material with information of private, highly guarded firearms.

Tseng wasn't sure if Reno was just a really good liar or he was hoping Tseng would find something on Cloud the redhead hadn't found. Neither option told Tseng anything though about Reno's information, except that the Turks should be keeping an eye on both cadets—but mostly Reno because Strife would be answering to SOLIDER soon. Tseng wasn't so worried about the quirks in Cloud Strife's recent file; the General would sort that out soon enough he knew.

In the end, the only thing Tseng had achieved was getting Reno's illegal alcohol-making buddies locked up. Tseng had sent some of his newer Turks down into Sector 2 after tracing the moonshine from the cadet barracks, only to hit a jackpot in terms of illegal alcohol, drugs and the stolen ultraviolet lights to grow them, along with a weapons cache for a gang. Pity he hadn't been able to tell Reno that before the exams started.

Tseng straightened as he was reminded of Rude's nomination at the thought of the exams. It irritated him that Rude would do that, but there wasn't much he could do. His current position as second to the head of the Turks was still relatively new, and he didn't want to jeopardize it by making himself look bothered by a mere cadet, and therefore weak. He'd just have to deal with Reno a little longer, and then the boy would take the Turk trials. While Tseng thought Reno had a lot of potential in some Turk areas, the department only needed the best, most rounded stealth and undercover soldiers—and Tseng wasn't so sure Reno was up to that.

He dusted off his suit; the private airship he had been leaning against for more than an hour was hardly the cleanest, and he needed to get back. He didn't let any emotions follow on the heels of thoughts of Reno's pending Turk trials, nor did Tseng let his temporary frustration with the gun situation sink any deeper. He had a department to essentially run, and a meeting with the Science Department he couldn't procrastinate any longer. If there was one department even the Turks were reluctant to work with, it was Hojo's.

Cloud pulled himself through the top hatch of the elevator car and hoisted himself on to the roof. It was uneven, with steel plating and crisscrossing beams to hold the heavy car steady. He found his footing quickly though with the aid of a flashlight John had in his mouth as the soldier pulled himself through.

The elevator shaft was eerily dark. Cloud could sense the expanse of space above him and could vaguely make out the cab next to his elevator and the steel cable that held it up. There were girders all around him and four sets of rails rising in the abyss. Below he knew there would be a counterweight as heavy as the elevator that would fall perhaps a story when the other car was dropped.

John situated himself by Cloud, reaching out to tentatively touch his shoulder. There wasn't a lot of space on the roof, and it would be easy to trip up in the dark. "Think you can make it strong enough?"

Cloud nodded, fingering the green materia in his hand. It was his own Fire, and he'd managed to get it up to Fire2 through enough practice over the last weeks. After molding that ice storm out of thin air in the practice room, Cloud had initially rejected using any more materia until necessary. However, in the last two weeks with all the review for the exam, Cloud had realized he would need some margin of control over his magic. It was still difficult when he literally felt like he was brimming over with power—a strange sensation he hadn't felt since he'd fought weak monsters at the height of his power. It could be dangerous though, and Cloud was doubly sure he wouldn't be using magic to take down any human enemies any time soon.

The trick for this plan—and one that required the utmost control—would be to maintain the right level of heat. He could probably burn down the elevators doors better than weld them shut.

Reno and Aaron's elevator next to them began to rise, moving in a heavy black shadow, a slightly dank wind stirred up as it passed, before rising up and into the blackness above.

When John turned back to him, the blond began. Pushing some energy into materia, Cloud lifted it over his head to just the bottom of where the second floor doors met. Channeling the energy into a thin tongue of flame, Cloud held it steady as he watched through both light from the fire and from John's flashlight as it touched the door.

There was a crackling, fizzing sound as the metal began to melt, and the blond put a little more energy behind it. It was a mistake though as the flame flared, and he pulled just in time to see a little window of light where he had melted a hole through the door.

John gasped quietly behind him. "I guess I was worried for nothing."

Cloud didn't respond, adjusting the flame several times until finally he started to melt the metal just above the inch-wide hole. It began to rapidly pool in the hole, and John ducked down quickly, whipping out another green materia and crystallizing the metal with a well-timed Blizzard. It solidified, and Cloud stopped to look down.

Several hardened droplets were sliding down the wall, and if John hadn't jumped in, more may have landed on Cloud's boots. "Thanks."

"No problem."

Cloud stomped his foot now that he'd gotten the hang of it, and heard the grinding screech as the elevator car began to move. Steel cables whirred and trembled as the cab began to lift. The blond was ready, with his materia held high and slowly melting the door as they rose while John froze the welded line together before it could drip too far. These elevators were old and rusty, and as Cloud had anticipated the elevator moved slowly and superheating the metal was easy.

Dan had only hit the button for the second floor, so once those doors were welded shut and the elevator had stopped, John poked his head down into the hole. "How's it look, Dan?"

Cloud could hear Dan's response as it echoed up. "Sealed shut. Should I go all the way up now?"

John glanced at the blond with his flashlight, and Cloud nodded. "Yeah."

"Okay."

It took them four and a half minutes to get to the top, and Cloud wouldn't admit it, but they were some of the longest he'd felt in awhile. It took a lot of concentration to keep the flame steady and not too hot, and John needed an Ether Dan tossed up as he MP started to give out. Dan kept up steady confirmation of the shut doors, though he also looked a little freaked out by the sound of the straining mechanism inside the doors. It wasn't strong enough to break the seal, though Cloud had been concerned it might be.

At the top floor, Reno was standing on top of the second elevator. He swiveled his flashlight at Cloud, whistling a bit at the still orange flickering of the last sealed doors. "That is gonna look great on our report. Sure you won't get pushed into the materia division?" Cloud ignored the redhead to test the sides of the cooled welding.

"In other news, I can't break the cables or the pulley. They're solid steel, and the release hinge on the top is rusted over. Think you've got enough MP to melt them too?" Cloud glanced down at the Fire materia, which was registering a lot more experience, almost enough for Fire3. As far as MP was concerned, Cloud still had about half left. He hadn't used much to weld the doors shut.

"I have to seal the eighteenth floor doors too. Has Aaron switched cars?"

"Going now," he said, a bit breathlessly as he climbed out of the other elevator and slipped down the hole into Dan's. With the doors welded shut that was the only way into one elevator anymore. John dropped down into the cab as well while Reno gripped one of the girders between the two elevators and used it to step on to Cloud's elevator. The whole team now occupied one cab while the second was ready to drop.

"Keep the flashlight on me so I can see. When I finish the doors I'll climb up to that girder and melt the pulley."

"Sure thing."

Cloud tucked the materia securely into his pocket before gripping one of the cables hanging at the center of the elevator. There were hard and cold in his hands, very rough and uncomfortably wide for his smaller grip to get completely around, but he managed. He hoisted himself high enough to be on par with the eighteenth floor doors, then using an arm and both legs to hold himself to the line, pulled out the fire materia. He managed to make a messy vertical gash on the doors, and with two more and a slight hole through it on one side, he made sure the doors wouldn't be opening again.

Cloud crawled further up then and pulled himself up on a girder. It was dusty and covered in rust, but still solid. Scooting closer to the other side of the shaft, he pulled out the materia again. "Reno," he called down. "Point the flashlight at the pulley."

"Sure," the redhead said, then crouched down for a second to peek into the car he was standing on. "Bet you 10 Gil it'll take four seconds to hit the ground."

Cloud could hear Aaron respond with his own bet, and Reno left the three inside to make their own guesses.

With the flashlight on the pulley, Cloud could now see it was a complicated piece of levers, ropes, and winding lines and reels, all attached to an electrical box between the shafts above the eighteenth floor. The whole thing was heavily rusted at parts, though clearly some of it had been chipped away to make the elevators usable.

"Reno, can you light the box up?"

"What box?" The redhead called back.

"The microprocessor that controls the elevator."

Reno darted the flashlight about a bit before he found it. Cloud crawled along the girder and reached up to the box. There was a smaller, newer microprocessor attached to it that Cloud would bet his life on SOLDIER had attached to stop the elevator from going to the basement and to probably monitor its movement. He pried it off with his fingers, snapping the wires attached to a plug on the side of the machine.

He tossed the little machine down to Reno. "Throw that behind the elevator when it falls."

Reno picked it up from where it had hit. "I could probably use this."

Cloud backed up from the electrical box. "Then keep it. I don't care."

Reno retrained the light on the pulley, and Cloud summoned up a molten white-hot flame that licked at the metal for several seconds before steam began to rise as it melted. Cloud concentrated on keeping the flame going at that heat until there was an audible snap and a whoosh as the pulley tumbled into the darkness.

There was a half second of silence before a smash of metal as the pulley hit the top of the elevator. Then very suddenly there was a horrible, ear-splitting, nails-on-chalkboard screech that ripped through the shaft. It wailed and echoed and reverberated and Cloud had enough sense to grip the materia in his hands as he covered his ears. Reno had dropped to his knees and was curled up over, the flashlight sitting on the top of the elevator forgotten.

Sephiroth jerked abruptly from where he stood by the building. There was a horrible whine being emitted from there that caused him to unconsciously reach up to cover his ears. Zack and one other First near him both winced as the sound reached them. Seconds and Thirds cocked their heads, and howling stray dogs could be heard in the distance.

When the sound abated, Zack was the first one to open his mouth. "What the fuck was that?"

Maxwell and Stojan along with the rest of their group paused on the stairs leading to the tenth floor. The walls were shaking and there was a terrible shrieking noise that made them all pause and look at each other.

"What was that?"

Cloud and the rest of his team began to recover, even as they could feel the aftershocks from the noise. Looking down from the girders, Cloud couldn't hear anything except a loud ringing in his ears. Reaching up, he gingerly touched them and was relieved when he didn't feel blood.

"Shit," he cursed, but he couldn't hear his own words. There wasn't any permanent damage to his ears, but something with the elevator must have gone wrong. "Reno?"

There was no response, but Cloud couldn't faintly make out the form of the redhead on the elevator. He was standing at least.

The ringing wouldn't stop in his head, so Cloud raised his voice. "If anyone can hear me, I need the light to get down."

He knew someone had responded when John appeared with his flashlight, handing Reno back his before shining the beam at the pulley and cables Cloud needed to climb back down.

Once he was on the elevator, he tapped Reno's shoulder. The redhead was grinning and indicated his ears, which weren't bleeding either, but were probably ringing too.

Cloud took Reno's flashlight and directed it down the other shaft. They could see the other elevator was sitting about a story and a half below them. Cloud dropped himself back inside the elevator, Reno and John behind him, as Dan and Aaron turned to him.

"Can you hear me?" He asked. He wasn't sure if he was speaking too loudly or not, it was impossible to judge volume when he couldn't hear himself.

Dan, Aaron, and John opened their mouths to speak, and Reno just grinned.

"I can't hear you now, but the other elevator must have had some kind of safety system put in. We need to go down about two levels to see if we can break the breaks."

Dan said something, but Cloud wasn't able to read his lips. There was a short flurry of conversation between him, John, and Aaron before Aaron must have won out and hit the button for the fifteenth floor, and the elevator slowly descended. When it stopped, Cloud pulled himself through with John.

The other elevator was almost exactly level with theirs, but the ropes and cables that held it up were slack. Something else was keeping it suspended. "Go down one more floor," Cloud instructed, only vaguely hearing the sound of his voice.

The elevator descended one more level, and now Cloud could see four mechanical pieces attached to the underside of the broken elevator and the rails it rode on. They were breaks, all engaged from what he could tell. They were the only things holding the elevator up.

With John's light, Cloud pulled out the fire materia again and this time didn't hold back as much. One explosion was enough to turn the first break into a dripping mess of melted metal. One more precise shot took out the second, and the horrible grinding screech repeated again. Cloud covered his ears and curled inward, but the sound didn't last long. Snapping metal resounded in the shaft, and then suddenly the elevator vanished in a void of sound, plummeting down into the vacuum below.

No one counted the seconds as they held their breath. The crash that resonated around them shook the building and made the remaining elevator sway dangerously for a second. Dust slowly began to rise to them and the other elevator stopped its tenuous shaking as Cloud peeked once more down that shaft and saw nothing but inky blackness.

Barely a minute after Sephiroth and the Firsts had recovered from the sound they heard something explode. The whole building visibly shuddered and the ground shook, but no damage could be seen. The SOLDIERs and regulation army members standing around were silent in shock for several moments before talking immediately broke out.

Sephiroth turned to Zack. "Find out who gave the cadets explosives."

Zack nodded and was about to turn away when a uniformed man ran up to the General. He pointed to one of the video monitors that showed the interior of an elevator before the screen turend to static.

"General, sir, the crash was an elevator. Elevator B had no occupants. The camera in Elevator A was shot out by Private Megarian approximately one hour ago. He's a member of Team 10, as were the last occupants of Elevator B."

Zack let out an undignified whoop and grabbed the Second Class SOLDIER for an impromptu hug. "Yeah Cloud! That's my Cloud!"