Just in time, many of you will have noticed we are a fan of late night uploading hehe. Enjoy!

-Chapter Twenty-

Company at the Cathedral

Ring ring…ring ring…ring ring…

"Ugh…" Alex groaned to the sound of the phone, she managed to muster up enough energy from her tired self to answer it though. "Yeah…" She groaned, still half asleep.

"Alex its Vincent." Her brain was working ten times slower than it normally did.

"Ugh Vincent…what do you want it's like…" She checked the clock which was illuminated on her bedside table, "…two in the morning, I'm trying to sleep!"

"Sleeping can wait, what I've got to tell you all is far more important…" He replied. Alex took a while to wake herself up a little more in order to muster up an answer.

"What do you mean tell us all?" She asked, noticing the use of the word.

"As in everyone. I need you to meet me…"

"Oh god no!" She moaned, cutting him off, "It's late Vincent! Can't we do this in the waking hours!"

"I need you to meet me at the Cathedral as soon as you can, I'm here already, the rest are on their way. I'll leave it to you to collect Shaun. Try to be as quick as you can…" He finished, leaving Alex deadly silent.

"Ugh yeah fine whatever, I'll be there soon." She chucked the phone down on her bed and managed to muster up enough energy to get up. Whatever this was it had best be important.

She went to the bathroom and splashed her face with some cold water. She looked in the mirror and saw Tifa looking back at her, obviously wide awake. "Perhaps he has answers?" She suggested.

"I really couldn't care less at the moment…" Alex mumbled quietly.

She got dressed as quickly as her tired self would let her and got Shaun on the phone. "Yeah I know it's late, I need you to meet me and the others at the Cathedral as soon as possible though…I know…I said that to him already…Let's hope so…No need to use that language…See you soon, bye." She hung up from the pleasant conversation.

"Tifa can you just take over so I can sleep more?" Alex suggested.

"Once you get out of the house." She agreed, obviously sensing the lethargy of her host.

She snuck out of the house as quietly as she could so as not to wake anyone. They were all in such deep sleeps though that this was hardly a problem. The cold night air slapped her in the face hard as she got outside. Alex groaned again before setting off out of sight so that Tifa could take over.

X

The cathedral itself was spectacular. Why Vincent had chosen this particular location for them to meet however was anybody's guess. Tifa and the disguised ginger dog that was Red XIII strode up to it, taking in its grandeur appearance as they did so. Even though they had been in this world for a good few months now, it was a sight they had yet to see.

They walked up to the large front doors to find that they had been unlocked already, obviously by Vincent for their arrival. They walked in, the creaking of the unoiled hinges echoing in the huge room beyond. Both of them looked around, there was no sign of the red caped figure anywhere.

"Well he said he was here already…" Tifa informed Red, closing the door behind them and walking into the room, "…wonder who he found?"

"All in good time." A voice came from seemingly nowhere. From the shadows emerged Vincent Valentine. "The others should be here soon, I have much more to tell you all…"

"Well that is always welcome news," Tifa agreed, "Just Reeve and Yuffie we are waiting on then?"

"And Elena. Gives me a chance to see how truthful she is really being…" Vincent explained, "I'm just as sceptical about that as I'm sure you are."

The door creaked open once more and through it walked the slight figure of Yuffie. She skipped merrily down towards them all. "You really do pick bad times Mr Valentine!" She giggled.

"Apologies, you will all forgive me though I assure you." He replied.

"It's not me that's pissed its Savina!" Yuffie informed him, "She is sleeping at the moment, I'll fill her in on this after."

Tifa made a mental note to do the same with Alex, she had temporarily forgot that she wasn't listening. The door creaked open again, and this time it was both Elena and Reeve who walked through it.

"Quite a mysterious meeting point you have chosen." Elena pointed out. "What would have been wrong with a hotel suite?"

"That Elena, would leave a paper trail." Vincent pointed out, "Something which we should endeavour to avoid from now on."

Once they were all at the front of the Cathedral, all but Vincent took a seat in the front row. Vincent stood on the raised platform in front of them, the better to talk to the lot of them.

"First of all a thanks to Elena for all the help she has been," Vincent began, making Tifa suspect he had sensed that her intentions were genuine, "knowing Rufus' movements is a big help."

"No problem." Elena remarked. "He may not see it but we need to stick together here."

"Quite." Vincent agreed. "Secondly as most of you know, I have found another one of us, he is quite a distance away from here though."

"Who is it?" Reeve asked.

"It's Barret." Vincent replied simply. "I managed to find him on a trip to America, I was searching several of the monuments over there when the instinct fortunately kicked in and we found each other."

"So we well and truly have been scattered worldwide." Red commented, sounding slightly disheartened. "Are we ever going to find everyone?"

"Of course we will, we have to stay optimistic!" Tifa said, trying to shed some light on the subject, "Think about it that only leaves us with Cloud and Cid to find!"

"Precisely." Vincent agreed. "We almost have the whole team back together, which is going to give us a good chance against Sephiroth."

"And the Shinra…" Elena pointed out, "…Rufus is still being as relentless as ever."

"Barret had some interesting news…" Vincent continued, grabbing their attention. "He has managed to locate another summon materia, only this one will be extremely difficult to even get close to."

They all pondered this for a moment. "Why is that?" Reeve asked nervously.

"Because it is located in Fort Knox." As he expected nobody seemed to react to this, all of the hosts were asleep so nobody knew just what Fort Knox was except Vincent. "Allow me to explain. Fort Knox is the most secure location in the world. It has the largest gold supply anywhere and is pretty much impenetrable, unless of course you have abilities like ours."

"Yeah!" Yuffie agreed, "Those jewels were…" She fell silent, obviously remembering that she no longer had the Alexander materia.

Vincent seemed to be able to read her thoughts. "I know what happened to your materia Yuffie." He said, grabbing her attention immediately but not causing her to speak. "Well I can take a very good guess, Sephiroth has it now."

"But how…why…what?" She spluttered, Vincent laughed quietly.

"It would appear that we can win summon magic off of other people here. Whoever gets the finishing blow on the summon if a summon dies claims it for their own." He touched a finger to his arm and made two red orbs appear, "Hence why I am now the proud owner of Neo Bahamut."

Everybody looked extremely impressed. "So how do you plan to knock off Fort Knox?" Elena asked.

"How do 'we' you mean?" Vincent prompted. "We will be relying heavily on manipulation, if we can get an insider it shouldn't be too difficult, much like your time with the jewels." He looked at Tifa, Red and Yuffie.

"So where exactly is Barret?" Tifa asked.

"Currently he is in Kentucky awaiting our arrival." Vincent informed them. "His host is in the military and has extensive knowledge of the fort, which is lucky. All the more reason to believe that the materia is still making its way through to this world even now, several months down the line. If this fort is anything to go by though, the materia should be a very good one indeed."

They all agreed with him, this was going to be one of the hardest tasks any of them had undertaken. "Not sure our hosts are going to take too well to the idea of breaking into the highest security building on the planet…" Red pointed out.

"On the subject of your hosts in particular…" He looked at Tifa and Red, "…you are going to have to make your excuses again, this is going to take a week at most, so make up a good excuse this time."

"Well…" Yuffie said, looking over at them, "…I think manipulation might be in order this time, wouldn't ya say!" She smiled at the both of them.

"We'll run it by them when they wake up, but I see your point…"

X

"Knock off Fort Knox…" Alex said to Shaun in the darkroom, "…you know what, I think they are starting to lose their marbles…"

"Well it must be something good there like they said…and there is nothing to stop us snatching a few of the gold bullion in the process!" To Alex's surprise he actually sounded serious.

It was very fortunate that nobody seemed to favour darkroom printing, as anybody listening into their conversation would be fairly alarmed. All of the other students in their class seemed to be doing digital printing at the moment.

"Almost makes me wish I had forced myself to stay awake for the meeting." Shaun said, moving one of his prints into the next solution. "What are you going to tell your parents this time?"

"Tifa keeps saying Yuffie offered to manipulate…I don't know though, I really had hoped I wouldn't have to do that to my family…" She took one of her prints out of the final solution and hung it up to dry.

"Might be the best way though, means you don't have to lie to them and if things do go wrong…well they will be able to deny any involvement in the whole thing. Not that it will go wrong of course!" Shaun hastily added at the end, moving his print again.

"We are leaving tonight anyway…Shaun, are you not getting annoyed from all this travelling yet? I mean I know this whole thing is supposedly very serious…Oh forget it…I just keep expecting to wake up." Alex looked across the dimly lit red room.

"We have both seen how serious this is…it is a miracle we can keep doing our college work at the same time. I can't help thinking it is a little pointless though." Shaun moved his picture to soak. "Hey, at least we will have something to tell the kids when we're older!"

Alex dropped the pair of tongs she was holding. "My dear I really don't think he was implying anything there…" Tifa said to her in an assuring way. Alex quickly picked the tongs back up off of the floor.

When college was finally over, the two of them made their way to their respective homes. Alex was surprised to see Savina standing outside of hers when she got there. "No need Alex, they know you aren't going to be here for a week."

Alex looked at her. "You just went ahead and manipulated them!" She was furious.

"Reeve said we can't waste any more time, we need to get moving. Time is always against us."

"But they are my parents!" Alex shouted at her, resisting the urge to run up to her and smack her in the face for her ignorance.

"I know that, you think I didn't try to reason with Reeve first? Look all I've done is made sure they know where you are going and that they didn't object, they aren't under my control." She assured Alex, "Now can we please get a move on and go to Shaun's house so I can do the same there, we need to hurry."

X

The atmosphere on the jet was very tense. Alex and Shaun were both in equally foul moods, neither of them speaking to Savina or Reeve. It was the same jet which they had used to travel to China in.

"I must say Reeve this is very impressive…" Elena remarked, walking over to a bar which was not installed on their last journey. She poured herself a drink, then offered one to each person in turn. "If you are going to travel, travel in style…"

Alex to everybody's surprise accepted her drink. Nobody had known her to touch alcohol before. This was evident when she took the first gulp and spluttered, Shaun laughed quietly. "Not been to many party's I take it?"

"It's not that, I just never usually drink…" She took another gulp with more dignity this time, "another long damn flight…"

"Do try to cheer up a little…" Vincent said, walking over to the pair of them, "…forgive me for pointing out the obvious but are you both starting to get a little tired of your parasites…?"

"It's not that as such." Alex began, downing her drink completely, "More the constant hopping on planes and having to lie to everyone. Why can't we just be straight with people? Tell them where we are going just perhaps not why."

"It is easier to keep as many people in the dark as you can and keep the specifics between those who really need to know." Vincent informed her. "Besides which…I have a feeling you won't need to keep things secret much longer at all…"

This made everybody present look at him. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Reeve asked, slightly angry.

"Well…" Vincent began, "…call it a premonition of sorts, I've never believed in being able to see the future but, I don't know how to explain it. It's just something I know, a vision I had whilst asleep. I saw Sephiroth revealed to everyone, but then I saw us too, and I don't mean just us, Cloud was there…"

Tifa suddenly took over Alex's form. "What do you mean Cloud was there? You aren't being very specific…"

"Specificity isn't important, I just know it was true, and I know it will happen soon…" Everybody seemed gripped.

"How soon?" Shaun asked, wondering if he would get an answer.

"Within the next two days at most…don't ask me how I know, I just know."

"Oh please!" Yuffie said, nobody had noticed her take over Savina. "We just have your feeling to go on, you think that we are all going to be exposed! What could possibly happen?"

"Like I said I don't know specifics." Vincent repeated. "Well, not those kinds of specifics at any rate."

"Wait if you are right," Tifa began suddenly noticing what he was implying, "You are saying that Cloud will return within two days?"

"Correct." Vincent said, everybody was still confused as to how he could be so sure, "But, and this is just my gut feeling, I think it is going to be a long two days…"

X

They touched down at an airfield in Kentucky after the long flight. What Vincent had said to them all had given them much to dwell on. Tifa had failed to mention the dream which she and Alex had had, this sounded like a similar sort of case. She would have to wait though, if her suspicions about the dream were true, then she knew full well what was coming up in Fort Knox.

There were several heavily armed men waiting for them as they got off the plane. Barret, or at least his host, was instantly recognisable. He was at least six foot four in height and built like a tank. He has startling blue eyes and short brown hair and dark skin. He looked to be in charge of the men he was standing with.

All of them had reverted to host form before getting off of the plane. Charles walked up to him. "Emilio Garcia, pleasure to meet you Mr Richards." He greeted him with a slight Spanish accent which was barely noticeable, and also with a slight wink, double confirming that this was indeed Barret.

"I can assure you Barret himself isn't that well-mannered, unless his host has taught him a lesson or two in them…" Tifa said slyly to Alex.

Emilio and his guards led them all over to what looked like a heavily armoured Hummer. Wondering if this was entirely necessary, they all got in one after the other, Emilio almost having to bend double due to his height.

Once all in the car it roared into life and they were off. "The driver can't hear us?" Charles asked.

"No, soundproof glass dividing us." Emilio assured them. "We wait until we get to the barracks before we change. I know who you all are already of course…" He put his feet up on the empty seat opposite him.

The barracks were not very far away at all, and before they knew it they were being lead into what looked like the commanders office. Emilio was obviously of quite a high rank. "Last one in please lock the door…" He said as Francesca walked through. She locked it.

Without the need to be prompted they all changed swiftly into their parasite forms. The tall heavily built figure of Barret Wallace stood before them all. "About %$^£%$ time you all showed up!" He almost shouted at them.

"Nice to see your host has had an impact on you…" Tifa said sarcastically, then walked up and hugged him, "…it's good to see you again!"

He lifted her off her feet in the hug. "Avalanche reborn again baby!" He cheered, setting her down. "Right, to business…" He looked around at all of them, "This Fort Knox of theirs seems to be quite a fancy place so we are gonna have to be careful if we don't wanna get £%$^%$ up." He looked walked over to a map on the far wall. "We are here…" He pointed unnecessarily at a big blue marker, the only marker on the map. "and the fort is allllllll the way over here!" He pointed quite far west of their location. "A hundred miles or so, best pack some sandwiches boys and girls cause it's a no fly zone over there! Gotta get there by truck."

They all groaned, as if they hadn't done enough travelling already. Barret then proceeded to go into finer details of how to get inside…

A/N- Hope you like it guys, next chapter saturday...and it will be saturday this time! Reviews appreciated as always! Til next time,

R&A