Yes, it's been a while but I haven't abandoned it. Enjoy!

Field Quanta

Wiess ground his teeth in irritation as he flattened himself against the wall of the corridor, one arm outstretched to keep his unconscious baby brother out of the line of fire of the ShinRa forces attempting to kill them. It had all been going so well, too: they'd easily got into the room housing the Deepground database and the three of them had painstakingly replaced each individual hard drive with an identical blank one, swapping wires with gloved hands so as not to leave behind fingerprints or DNA. The Deepground data drives had then been packaged up and hidden in Nero's extradimensional void, which Genesis had dubbed 'pocket-space'. They had then tried to leave unobtrusively, but had been thwarted by an overbearing scientist who had first berated them for being in a restricted area then demanded they identify themselves so he could lodge a complaint. Weiss had bitten back a retort and obligingly handed over the ID cards that had belonged to their uniforms' original owners –who had deserted with Genesis and now worked for cousin Vincent– then calmly knocked the man out when he tried to imput them in the system.

Unfortunately however there must have been someone manning the security cameras in spite of the current crisis as the next thing the former Deepgrounder knew alarms were blaring, red lights were flashing –again– and SOLDIERs piled into the lab through the stairwell with weapons at the ready, backed up by regular troopers with guns.

Nero had been hit by a ricocheting bullet barely three seconds into the fight as the trio dived for cover, prompting Weiss to swallow his pride and call Genesis. Yes, either he or Cloud could singlehandedly clear the room in under a minute if it came to it, but that wasn't the mission. The mission was to get in, get the data and get out without blowing their cover.

Which was why he was still crouching in the corridor which led to Hojo's public access cells, taking pot shots around the corner at the SOLDIERs using one of Nero's handguns and waiting for said baby brother to come around again so they could leave. Cloud was sprawled flat on the floor with a folding sniper rifle Weiss hadn't known the blond even owned, taking out cameras and electrical equipment with a steady aim and maiming anyone incautious enough to attempt to get closer. Three SOLDIERs had been kneecapped before they got the message and at least one trooper had lost a hand to Cloud's perfect marksmanship. The white-haired teen was privately impressed; the blond was costing the Company ever increasing sums of money with every piece of machinery he perforated and his actions would set the science department back by months.

He did wish big brother would get a move on though. It did not take ten minutes to fly halfway across Midgar.

There was a faint swoosh that Weiss automatically categorised as the sound of the lift doors opening, a soft hum swiftly followed by a chorus of panicked and pain-filled screams as the room flared with bright red light. Speak of the devil...

"Nothing shall forestall my return," quoted a smugly superior voice around the corner from where Weiss and Cloud were hiding with Nero. "I never liked those four. Were you successful?"

"Sir!" Weiss said, stepping carefully around the corner so he could see the entire lab area, Nero's gun still gripped in one hand. The room was a shambles; Genesis must have used Flare on it. The SOLDIERs weren't dead, but they'd take a lot of patching up.

Behind him Cloud slung his rifle over a shoulder, palmed a Restore Materia and cast Cure on Nero, fingers gently probing the bloody mat of hair on the side of the brunet's head.

Genesis tapped a foot impatiently and waved a hand at the white-haired infiltrator in the pale blue uniform. "Well?" Weiss could tell he wanted to ask more, but microphones were a real risk and they couldn't give anything away.

"Data retrieved and lower laboratories sabotaged, sir!" Weiss barked, careful to stick to the pre-arranged script. A groan behind him signalled Nero's return to consciousness. "No casualties, sir!"

"Injuries?" Genesis pushed tersely.

"Nothing a little rest won't cure, sir," said Nero, coming over to them with a hand gripping Cloud's shoulder. The red-eyed teen really wasn't used to working without his extra arms, which was likely why he'd been hit in the first place. Next to him Cloud also communicated his perfectly adequate health, using SOLDIER sign language rather than risk someone recognising his voice.

"Off with you then; I have a part to play," the redhead said regally. "Shoo."

Nero grabbed Weiss upper arm with his free hand and everything was swallowed by chilly blackness which rippled and swirled, eventually receding to reveal the inside of Vincent's apartment in Sector One. Shelke looked up from her game of cards spread over the dining table:

"Finally! You've been gone eighteen hours!"

Cloud immediately took control of the conversation. "Weiss, you and Nero take Shelke home; I have an alibi to establish. Shelke, catch."

The younger girl caught the airborne Materia and gently ran her fingers over its surface. "Ooh! Lightning! Thanks!"

"You're very welcome," the blond replied with a smile, removing his helmet and running gloved fingers through his spikes. "Now scat."

Nero nodded, put one hand on Shelke's shoulder and the other on Weiss' upper arm then called up the darkness again.


Weiss staggered on the second landing: long distance shadow teleporting was extremely uncomfortable for everyone other than Nero or Vincent. As soon as she'd recovered her balance Shelke wandered off to play with her new Materia, leaving the white-haired teen to pull off the uncomfortable SOLDIER helmet and drag his younger brother down to the infirmary: head injuries were not to be taken lightly, even when you were Mako-enhanced. Having abandoned Nero to the not so tender mercies of the medic on duty, Weiss carefully carried the stack of hard drives he'd pressured his brother into handing over up to the data room and painstakingly set about connecting them to the designated computer, which was deliberately not attached to the global network. True, he had been up for almost twenty-four hours, but his enhancements meant he could go on for another ten hours at least before fatigue started to become an issue and this really needed doing. Hopefully the medical data necessary to keep the remaining former Deepgrounders sane and in good health would be in here; Weiss knew they all needed regular Mako injections but they'd been forced to play fast and loose with the dosages since the escape due to the dearth of relevant data and the difficulty involved in getting hold of medical-grade Mako. Of course, their forces were less than a tenth of what they'd originally been –closer to a fifteenth really– so the Mako shortage was not really a problem anymore. Especially now they could siphon off the Banora reactor.

The lack of suitable Mako was likely why such a large proportion of the borderline forces had completely lost themselves: not enough Mako was almost as bad as too much once you'd passed a certain threshold. At least it was for men; women had no such problems with having their supply cut after the initial physical crash and short withdrawal period, which explained how Vincent had survived all these years. Nero, Rosso and Weiss himself were all on first-class doses calibrated for their size and sensitivity, which was only possible because they were closely related to Vincent and the Generals, all of whom had copies of their own detailed medical records, so only slight alterations had to be made. The rest of the forces –other than the deserters who were on standard SOLDIER doses– were less well off due to the severely limited medical records recovered from the Deepground facility.

Having wired in the first two hard drives and checked them for nasty little surprises, Weiss hooked up his primitive home-made virtual reality helmet to the computer and turned it on. It was time to decode the encryption, decipher the passwords and find out whether the information they were after really was contained in the recently stolen hardware.


Yes it's short but my muse is grumpy. I think it's because Modeoheim's immanent and Angeal is still acting up. I have that sinking feeling about that...

Anyway, more Weiss!