Sincere appologies for being so so late in uploading. Huge issues recently all of which are resolved now =). Enjoy the chapter!

-Chapter Twenty-One –

One Step Ahead

Back in their host forms they had decided against taking the hummer to the fort. The one hundred mile journey would take them just under two hours, giving them plenty of time to plan how they were going to get inside and find the materia, whatever that was.

"Looking at it, we shouldn't have to create too much of a hassle. All we want is one small orb that nobody else seems to be even remotely aware of…" Vincent pointed out as they drove down the road in the Jeep, he rarely ever went back into his host form. Emilio of course was driving.

"The fort itself used to have thousands of personnel, it still does but recent government funding has seen the loss of a lot of jobs. It will be easier now to 'invade' so to speak." Emilio informed them, though this did nothing to calm the nerves of anyone.

"Maximum Yuffie can manipulate at a time and keep control of is ten, a vast improvement from one but still nowhere near enough…" Savina chipped in, "…looks like we are going to have to go for the stealthier option, something which her and I are most accomplished at."

Charles looked over at her. "And you are just going to check the entire fort yourself are you? It could take a single person days even with the instinct in such a crowded space."

Savina could see where he was coming from, as could the rest of them. With a little bit of luck however, which happened to be something Elena was never short on, they would be able to find the materia and get out of the fort undetected.

"So how do we get in undetected if it is so heavily guarded?" Savina asked Emilio.

"I have the security clearance to get us into the fort so that shouldn't be a problem. You will need to manipulate the guards at the front gate to make them believe you are personnel too, once we get inside it shouldn't be a problem, it's just a matter of keeping our heads down and remaining undetected." He put his foot down slightly and started to speed along the main road they were on.

Two long hours of tactical talks and speculations of possible materia locations within the fort passed before they finally say it creep over the horizon. What they could see however was only the outer wall of the fort, the main part was inside these walls.

There was something rather odd looking about it though, which became more and more apparent as they got closer and closer. There was smoke rising from the fort, far too much of it to just be burning any kind of waste. They reached the front gate, nobody was there guarding it, yet it wasn't open either.

"Allow me…" Said Reeve, nobody had noticed him swap back in. He raised his hand and it began to glow the familiar green colour, seconds later the gate began to creep open, "…better than breaking it down…"

The site that they met now was terrifying. The far eastern wall had been completely broken down by what looked like a huge machine, there were big craters where what looked like the feet would have stepped each time. The main building in the middle was still intact, the fire was strewn all around the courtyard.

The bodies of soldiers littered the area in which they stood. Clearly dead, many staring blankly up at the bright sky as though daydreaming.

"We proceed with caution…" Vincent said, rather unnecessarily, taking a very weary step forward into the courtyard, "…whoever it was may still be inside."

"It can't be Rufus…he hasn't said anything about Fort Knox…" Elena informed them after taking over Francesca, "…unless of course he played it close to the chest."

They all began to walk very slowly towards the main building that was Fort Knox. It was disturbing just how many people had been killed, hundreds of people adorned with camouflage were passed on their way to the building.

The parasites reached the main entrance to the building. This door too was sealed shut, as though nobody had even been inside. Reeve worked his magic to get them inside, and they all entered.

Upon entering they found that someone had indeed already been here. The huge vault door across the main antechamber was blown off its hinges.

"It makes no sense though," Tifa said quietly to the others, "this is the most heavily guarded place in the world and yet where are the authorities? Why has nobody noticed that there has been a break in?"

"Fair point." Barret agreed, "only one person that could have done this though eh?" They all knew of course who he was referring to.

"That's just too damn weird though!" Reeve said in exasperation, taking another tentative step forward. "We met him on the great wall and now apparently here…how is he always ahead of us!" He walked straight into another dead body. Looking round they saw that everybody inside had been completely slaughtered.

"This one has been shot though…" Elena pointed out a body that had several bullet wounds to the chest, "…I didn't think Sephiroth used guns?"

"Probably the reflection of a barrier…" Vincent suggested, subconsciously touching a finger to his neck, "…you can just picture it now can't you? All these men completely oblivious to his power firing as many bullets at him as they could…"

Yes, it all seemed far too clear now. No doubt Sephiroth was either still inside looking for the materia, had acquired it and made a break for it, or had not managed to find it. This last hope was extremely wishful thinking however.

"Well we came all the way here…" Barret began, striding fairly confidently over to the hole which had once bore the vault door, "…might has well take a look inside, see if there is anythin' we can use."

The others agreed with him and followed. The site which they were met with was both one of horror and amazement. On one hand there was more gold than any of them could ever have dreamed of. Thousands upon thousands of gold bullion secured behind steel bars reminiscent of a prison cell. On the other however, tens maybe hundreds of dead soldiers, some who had been liberated of their torsos and heads.

"Looks like his work alright. He wanted to make a splash it would seem, mass murder, thousands of American militia dead…" Vincent thought aloud, "…this could cause a war depending on what the authorities surmise happened."

They walked deeper into the bullion reserve vault, noticing just what a clean job Sephiroth seemed to have made of it all, not one single survivor.

"Well we might as well look for the materia…" Yuffie said, half-heartedly, "my instinct isn't picking up anything though." She walked over to one of the open cages containing gold bullion and picked one up. "Wow this is heavy."

"Put it back…" Reeve instructed her, "…it's bad enough what has happened here already."

Yuffie begrudgingly replaced the brick. They all conducted a small search, though none of them really wanted to stay long considering the décor they had been left with. No doubt it would only be a matter of time before the authorities were with them as well.

"This isn't going to get us anywhere…" Vincent said to Reeve, who nodded in agreement, "…we were too slow, he isn't even here anymore."

"I hate to admit that you are right. We regroup back in England and decide where we go from here, things could get nasty in the world now…" He was remembering just how long both the apartment explosion and the tower break-in had made headlines in the UK.

They all agreed to leave, as they reached the vault door however, Vincent did something very peculiar. He turned, extended his materia arm, and it glowed yellow for a good ten seconds. He closed his eyes as he did this, then suddenly, he looked very alarmed.

"There is a survivor in here somewhere!" He shouted at them, returning to the Vault floor and beginning to check bodies that were still in one piece for a pulse.

"How do you know!" Yuffie cried, joining him in the search.

"I can sense it, there is one survivor but they aren't going to last long so we need to find them!" He continued looking. Whoever this survivor was they could not be conscious, or they were so badly injured they could not speak.

They were searching for roughly ten minutes before Tifa finally shouted. "Over here!" Everyone ran over to her, seeing that she was crouching over the body of a young woman with an extremely deep gash across her chest.

"Red we need healing magic…" Reeve said, Red was already on the case however. The green mist seemed to stitch up the wound before their very eyes. It took several attempts due to Red's current state of shock from the whole situation, but soon the woman was stirring.

She looked at them all. "Who…who are you?" She asked, frightened.

"Don't worry we are here to help…what is your name?" Tifa replied assuring her, the woman seemed to believe this.

"A…Alicia…" She sat up slightly, wincing from what must have been the ache left from the cut.

"Alicia…" Reeve began, kneeling down next to her, "…can you tell us what happened here?"

She looked as though she was about to break down into tears. Her eyes flicked across the room where her fellow militia had been murdered. "A machine…a huge machine broke down the walls of the fort…it came from the earth, we had no time to prepare any kind of defence…"

"Go on…" Vincent pressed, also kneeling down.

"Bullets didn't seem to affect it, it just kept on walking and firing…I don't know what it was firing…light?" She looked at them as though for help.

"Sounds like Alexander…your theory is right after all Vincent…" Yuffie said, defeated.

"It killed everything in its path…and then that man, the man with the silver hair…" She started to cry silent tears, "…nothing would hit him, no matter how much we tried."

"It doesn't fit though…" Elena began, "…how could he alone take down all these men in here even with a barrier?"

"One man?" Alicia questioned, "No, he had at least thirteen accomplices once he got inside the vault… We tried to ambush him, the remaining militia mounted an attack against him whilst he was in here, that's when there were thirteen others, all seemed invulnerable to harm…all wielding very medieval weapons…"

Tifa got to her feet when she realised what Alicia was on about. She turned to her companions. "The knights of the round…"

Yuffie was the first to respond. "Well its game over then, how on earth are we supposed to match up to such a force?"

"Thing is I knew this was coming…" Tifa began, everyone looked at her, she looked Vincent straight in the eye, "…Alex and I, we had a premonition too, in a dream. From what I could make out, it implies all of us are going to have to face them and Sephiroth soon…"

"Why didn't you tell us…" Vincent replied, slightly annoyed, "…we could have pre-empted this, possibly prevented it!"

"I didn't think anything of it, after all it was just a dream…who knew that it was in fact reality?" Nobody argued with her.

"Anybody else want to share a premonition?" Vincent asked, looking round at all of them. Nobody however seemed to have had one. "Well this is not good…Alicia? Where is the control room for the security cameras?"

"Destroyed…" She replied helplessly, "…there is something else you should know though."

They had all begun to leave, but had turned round at this. "Go on?"

"That man, the one with the silver hair…he changed when he thought we were all dead…physically changed his appearance to resemble that of a teenage boy…" Tifa walked back over to her when Alicia said this.

"What did he look like?" She asked.

"I don't know…tall? Brown hair? That's all I remember…He threatened to kill himself, I don't understand why or who he was saying it to…" So Sephiroth had a teenage boy as his host, this was the most useful thing they had discovered thus far.

They all went to leave. "Yuffie." Vincent said to her in an undertone. "Manipulate her memory, make her forget this we can't have the story of what really happened getting out."

She obliged, causing Alicia to lose consciousness once more. They all walked back out into the courtyard. Nothing had changed, the authorities were still yet to get on the case which was unnerving in itself. They all stood in the courtyard for a moment, nobody saying anything.

Vincent eventually broke the silence. "Barret, you and I should stay here and see how the government react to this, if this does cause a world war we will need to know before anybody else does. The rest of you should head back to England, tell your hosts to act as though they know nothing about this, we can't raise suspicions." They all walked towards the jeep.

"I will remain in the States as well." Elena informed them all, "Rufus has a base established in Nevada, I have orders to be there soon. I shall need to play my part if you want information on him to keep coming your way." They all nodded at her.

"Things really are beginning to heat up now…" Red said, jumping in the back, "and if Vincent is right, the worst is yet to come…"

X

Good afternoon and welcome to the news at one, today's headlines. Fort Knox, the world's largest gold bullion reserve was yesterday crippled under a huge terrorist attack. Authorities say it was murder on a colossal scale, though as far as initial reports go nothing was taken from the Vaults, our American correspondent reports…

Alex flicked the TV off. It was everywhere the next day, in the newspapers and on every single TV channel. The news was the biggest of the millennium thus far, and it had people running scared. The reason being of course if that nobody had a clue who truly committed the crime except the parasites.

Vincent had informed them earlier that very morning that the president of the united states did not have a clue where to begin. The meeting which he had had with all of his advisors yielded no results, and he was forced to make a public speech saying how justice would be delivered and the ones responsible found.

What kept playing on Alex's mind the most however, was Vincent's premonition. The thought that the parasites were soon to be exposed was frightening, would she be outcast? Disowned by her family? As Vincent had said however, it was not specific, who knew what was going to happen.

Her phone began to ring, and to her utter amazement it was Josh. "Hey buddy, how you doing?" She answered immediately. "Tell me about it, can't seem to get away from the news even when I turn the TV off!"

X

"Yeah I know, bit of a bummer for a Saturday, still we have fencing to look forward to later right?" He replied, Sephiroth pretty much telling him what to say without saying it for him.

"Uh huh, don't forget I still have that video of you kicking his ass! Oh wait I didn't tell you I filmed your final match of the tourney… Aww don't be like that, I would have wiped it if he won! Anyways I'll see you at six mate, just don't say the words Fort Knox when you see me!" He joked.

He hung the phone up. "Your device can film people?" Sephiroth asked. It was questions like this that made Josh remember just how out of sync he was with the technology of this world.

"Yep." He replied out loud, "Pretty neat huh?" He flicked his phone to the video section and found the one that he had referred to on the phone with Alex.

He hit play, watching as Alex struggled for the first two points yet then pulled a victory out of the bag. He smiled as the masked figure he knew to be Alex shook the hand of the referee, then removed her mask to smile at the crowd…Josh's hand went rigid, and the phone fell to the floor. He sat there for a few moments in utter shock.

X

"I'm only saying it was probably the…" Alex's mum began,

"Stop being so racist! You don't have any idea who it was same as the authorities don't so stop trying to guess, you are just making yourself look bad." Alex cut her off, walking into the kitchen and pouring herself a glass of orange juice.

"This is big big news though, for somebody to take on a place with such high security and get out without a trace…ooooh wouldn't you have loved to have just been a fly on the wall?"

"If she only knew…" Tifa said in Alex's head, making her choke on some of the juice she had just gone do drink.

"I can't imagine being a fly on the wall to thousands of peoples deaths to be a very nice experience mum, so in answer to your question," She downed the drink and set the glass down, "no, I would not love to have been a fly on the wall."

She began to walk towards her room. "Oh I forgot to mention, one of your classmates dropped off some of your work whilst you were gone, I left it on your bed!"

Alex thought this was extremely generous of whoever this was considering she was only gone for a day. Upon entering her room however she saw a large a2 board wrapped up in brown paper. This, she thought, must be her collage.

There was a note attached to it;

Like I said it won't mark you down, but if you intend to keep it I really would advise changing that one print, it just takes away from the overall cheery mood of the whole piece. Adrian.

She unwrapped it and looked around for the print he was referring to. At first glance however she could not see the print which he meant, every single print had either a person/group of people or an obvious main point of interest. Upon closer inspection however, she noticed one print which was very out of place, a picture of someone standing in front of the drama building wall.

Instinctively, she drew her phone out of her pocket and began to dial Charles' number, but then halfway through she stopped, cleared it, and replaced the phone in her pocket.

"What do you think you are doing!" Tifa shouted at her causing Alex to grab her head in discomfort, "You need to tell them, you absolutely need to!"

"NO!" Alex screamed back, a tear now running down her cheek, "And no matter how hard you try to make me I won't!" She dissolved down onto her knees, both hands clutching her head. She could feel Tifa trying to take control, trying to make her call Charles and blow the whole thing open. "I…Will…Not…"

A/N- Dun dun dun! Anyways reviews, con crit both welcome. Next chapter wednesday!

R&A