So here I go again
Chasing you down again
Why do I do this?

-Over and Over, Three Day's Grace

Tseng's office was a grim scene.

In one corner, Rude sat in perfect silence, so still it gave Reno a shock every time he looked over and noticed he was there. Tseng himself was hunched over his desk, staring at a pile of paperwork as though he wouldn't have minded murdering it. Reno was just glad the stare was directed at the papers and not at him. The matter of him shoving Cissnei out of the way of Tseng's bullet could not have fled Tseng's mind so quickly. Elena hovered by Tseng's desk cradling a cup of coffee, her usual bubbly cheerfulness subdued by the undeniable tension in the room even though she could not have known the cause of it.

Reno fidgeted with his collar. He'd actually done up his tie properly for once, because he'd noticed Tseng shooting looks at it and hadn't wanted to aggravate the man further, but man was it choking him. Ties were not meant to be worn like that. In fact, in Reno's book ties were not meant to be worn at all, but company rules were company rules.

Or something.

Reno fidgeted again and covered a yawn with one hand. This has got to set a record for my ability to sit still. The threat of Tseng's wrath if he drew any attention to himself would do that.

He tried to catch Rude's eye, but the sunglasses got in the way. Fidget. If someone doesn't say something soon I swear I'm gonna...

"Elena," Tseng said neutrally, nearly causing Reno to jump out of his skin. Am I psychic or what? "Would you mind leaving the office for a moment? I must debrief these two on a recent mission."

Reno's skin crawled. On second thoughts... I should've stuck with silence.

Elena glanced from Tseng to Reno to Rude and back again. "Sure, no problem, sir," she said, hurrying out the door. The click resonated behind her.

Tseng crossed his arms as he turned to his subordinates and Reno found himself developing a sudden fascination for the ceiling tiles. They were sparkling white turning darker at the edges, with barely a hairbreadth between each other -

"Both of you. Explain."

Reno glanced again at Rude. If the man had come up with some ingenious plan to save both their skins, he wasn't sharing. "Explain what, sir?"

"The order was to come back with a body."

Reno swallowed. His throat had gone far too dry for his comfort. "Yeah, I know. We got... distracted."

"Distracted?" Tseng questioned, his gaze not leaving Reno's face for a moment.

"The guy I saw with Aerith showed up again and started waving his huge-ass sword around. What were we supposed to do, stick around to get crushed by the plate?"

"You were supposed to complete your mission, Reno."

"Yeah, yeah. It's not likely they survived the plate's fall anyway, yo." He'd calculated they had a maybe one in three chance of making it out on time provided not-quite-SOLDIER guy's mako enhancements were legit, but he wasn't about to share that information with Tseng. You better have looked after her, SOLDIER dude. After screwing up this badly I might as well get a little pay-off. The only thing worse than him failing this mission would be Cissnei being dead and him still failing the mission.

"The president didn't ask for 'not likely'."

Ah, yes, the crux of the problem. The president. Reno currently wished the president of ShinRa would do the entire company a favour and go drown himself in a pit of boiling acid. This was why he didn't like missions that were given directly from up top. Too much damn pressure. "Yeah, well, the president will have to suck it up then, cause I can't exactly change things, yo."

Reno waited for Tseng's inevitable rebuke towards his disrespectful choice of words, but instead Tseng just drummed his fingers against the desk, looking lost in thought. "Rude, go scout the wreckage. If you find something recognisable as Cissnei's corpse, bring it back and the problem's over."

"Yes, boss." Rude nodded once and made for the door.

"Reno, go tidy yourself up. If Rude doesn't return within the next two hours, you and I have a department meeting to attend and for once in your life I would like you to make a good impression."

"Sir. What're we gonna tell 'em?"

"We're going to convince them they still need us."

Cissnei left Elmyra's feeling far less confident than she had while talking to the woman. Making promises was all well and good; keeping them was the hard part. How could she 'do her best' when she didn't have the faintest idea where to start looking?

Think, Cissnei. Were you a Turk or not? What kind of Turk can't find one flower girl?

So, Aerith had gotten Marlene to safety; that meant she'd made it out of Sector Seven. Good; that increased the likelihood of the girl still being alive hugely. The question was, what then? She hadn't gone back to her house with Marlene; either she'd chosen not to, or something had prevented her. 'Something' could have been being killed - in which case searching for her was futile; too many people had died when the pillar fell to find Aerith among them - or being captured. The most likely captors would be ShinRa, but why would ShinRa choose to take her now after years of leaving her on her own? Of course, ShinRa had been taking many unprecedented actions recently. Cissnei winced. The bruises she was sure were spreading across her left side and chest could attest to that.

What makes Aerith special? Aside from an innocence Cissnei couldn't help but envy and her ability to steal the heart of a certain SOLDIER. She's half-ancient. So, does ShinRa have any reason to want a Cetra now of all times?

"Are you just going to keep standing there, Cissnei?" Cloud's voice interrupted her train of thoughts and she shot him a look of annoyance. "We told Elmyra we'd find Aerith."

"We said we'd try," Cissnei corrected instantly. Be careful with your promises. "And I intend to; I was trying to figure out the best way to start searching." There's too many unknowns. ShinRa has been acting strangely, yes, but why? There's the threat from Avalanche, and from me. There was the incident with SOLDIERs Hewley and Rhapsodos a few years back, and then there was... whatever happened at Nibelheim. Cissnei swallowed. It occurred to her that she was lucky she'd left ShinRa when she had. Whatever was happening was causing ShinRa to turn on its own staff (Genesis, Angeal, Sephiroth (whatever happened to him, it couldn't have been good)... Zack...). As a Turk she had always thought herself safe from ShinRa as long as she was an obedient knife in the dark for them to direct, but SOLDIERs had thought themselves safe as well.

Tseng's dark expression as he levelled a gun at her flashed through her head. She pushed it away. Stop getting sidetracked and think. You need to find Aerith.

So, ShinRa had destroyed its own SOLDIER programme in these last years, a programme it had created by enhancing people with superhuman powers. At the same time, they had kept a girl with superhuman powers of her own under their careful eyes... and now that girl was missing.

"We need to search ShinRa. Search their labs."

Cloud's eyes widened. "Labs? Why?"

Cissnei searched his face for anything more than surprise and concern for the flower girl. The four years he himself had spent in ShinRa's labs should have left a mark... but if they had, it was well hidden. He was focused only on his worry for Aerith. What was it about that girl that made everyone instantly want to protect her, keep her close and safe? "There's a lot of things about Aerith you don't know, but I'll let her tell you in her own time if she decides to. For now, just trust me."

For a moment Cloud opened his mouth as though he was about to argue. Cissnei didn't blame him. Where had trusting her ever gotten anyone, besides an early grave? But then he closed it again and nodded. "I'll get Barret."

So... I wrote an update for this a few days ago, but I didn't like it so I took it down.

Also, apologies for the one-year hiatus, as I said in the author's note on the update I took down, I have had a very hectic year. I have a busy schedule for this summer too, but I'll try to keep updating as often as I can. Thank you to everyone who's stuck with me so far.