A/N: Okay, hi! Welcome back. :) I don't have much to say about this chapter other than the fact that, like the last two, I've gone through it and done a bit of a re-write. Most of the changes in this chapter just involved beefing things up a little and improving the flow, but there are some other additions that weren't in the original version of the chapter. Overall, the chapter is of better overall quality than the original version, so if all else fails at least I can say I accomplished that. XD

Anyway, I'll shut up now. Enjoy the chapter. :D

Chapter 3

Valeria had phoned Reeve and told him to send a chopper as soon as she and Yuffie had checked and made sure that Genesis was just unconscious and not dead. Reeve had agreed immediately, and had told her just before hanging up that he was summoning the other former AVALANCHE members to HQ so that they could have a discussion about the most recent developments once they returned.

Now we just have to carry him up to where the chopper's landing, she mused, looking at the unconscious former SOLDIER. Genesis, Reeve had told her, had been one of the best 1st Class SOLDIERs before he'd deserted. It had been complicated, Reeve had said, involving Jenova experiments and degradation and a long list of complex situations. When he'd started trying to explain to her something about a Dr. Hollander and Banora and gene-splicing, she'd cut him off. "I get the idea," she'd told him. "It's complicated. Have Shelke type up a report, and I'll read it later."Whether or not she'd actually read that report was debatable, but at least she could say that she had the information at her disposal if she were someday so inclined.

"Yuffie," she said now, calling the ninja girl over from checking the bodies for materia and other salvageable loot, "help me carry him."

Yuffie's eyes widened in an almost comical fashion. "You're not serious," she said, kneeling down. "He's like twice my size!"

"Yeah, he's a bit on the tall side," she acknowledged." Bit scrawny, though," she added absently, poking the unconscious man in the ribs.

"Valeria!" Yuffie scolded, smacking at her hand.

The green-eyed woman arched an eyebrow but said nothing. Then her phone buzzed in her pocket with the call she'd been waiting for.

"Hello, Reno~" she answered cheerily. The red-haired Turk was someone she got along with well, and she enjoyed spending time with him during their off-hours. She liked that he always said exactly what was on her mind; it was a refreshing change of pace compared to all the close-mouthed people she'd met over the course of her life. That he had a wicked sense of humor also helped.

"Ah, Val." Reno's voice was light and friendly like always, with just a hint of chopper noise in the background of the call that let her know he was up in the air right now, presumably piloting "How you been?"

"Great. All things considered, anyway," she amended, giving another slight sigh as she glanced back down at the unconscious man on the ground.

"I take it you're referring to Genesis," Reno remarked.

"Yeah. He's out cold," she felt obligated to add. "How the hell am I supposed to get him to the meeting point?"

"Don't worry," Reno replied. "Rude and Tseng are here with me. They can come down and carry him up."

"That'd be great, Reno. Thanks."

"No problem. Hey," he added, a slight thread of anxiety threading its way through his voice, "you wanna go out for lunch sometime? This weekend maybe?"

She blinked, surprised by the unexpected change in topic. "Sure," she said immediately, not entirely sure why that question needed to be asked, since they normally ended up eating at the same cheap diners anyway. Still...it was nice to be asked out properly, even if she knew it was just Reno being Reno. So..."I'd like that a lot," she told him.

"Okay, cool." Reno gave a slight chuckle, then made a startled sound as if something had suddenly caught his attention; judging from the beeping in the background it was probably something to do with his helicopter. "Okay, we'll be landing in a few minutes," he said a moment later. "See you soon." Then he hung up.

She stared at her phone, as if it were some device of magical power.

"Reno ask you out?" Yuffie asked, suddenly right behind her.

"Aah!" Valeria nearly toppled over sideways. "Don't sneak up on me like that!"

"So…yes?"

"Yes, what?" Valeria asked, brushing some invisible dust off her sleeve.

"Reno asked you out, right?"

"Uh, yeah?"

Yuffied squealed excitedly. "That's great! He really likes you, you know."

"Uhm….okay." She was pretty certain that Reno liked her as a friend and nothing more, but she was hardly going to get into that debate right now. So she just tucked her phone back into her pocket and returned her focus back to their mission. "Tseng and Rude are coming to help us carry him," she said, prodding Genesis with the toe of her boot again, and Yuffie rolled her eyes.

"Fine, fine," the ninja said in response. "So long as they hurry up."

"What's your rush, Yuf?" Valeria asked, looking at the ninja curiously.

"Well, we're heading back to HQ after this, right? And Reeve's calling everyone over, right?"

"Yeah."

"So Vince'll be there," Yuffie said matter-of-factly.

Valeria scrunched up her face in puzzlement. "Vincent?" she asked, needing to verify; she wouldn't have dreamed of calling the intimidating man in the red cloak 'Vince' as if he were an old friend who wouldn't bat an eye at the incongruous nickname. Then again, Yuffie and Vincent were old friends, so that probably factored in.

"Yeah," Yuffie said. "I haven't seen him in ages. It'll be good to catch up. We were having a talk about moogles and motion sickness last time," she added lightly, "but some sort of minor crisis cropped up in the middle of it, and then I got called back to Wutai right after so we never finished. "

"Huh." Valeria couldn't help but wonder what that was like; having someone you'd known so long and were so comfortable with that you could go a while without seeing them and then reunite and carry on as if there had been no separation at all. The only person she'd even known for that long was her twin, and they'd never been apart for any extended period of time beyond the time Valeria spent on away missions.

Yuffie gave her a funny look. "What is it?" the young ninja asked. "You're making a weird face."

Valeria gave a shrug that she hoped came off as nonchalant. "It's nothing," she said dismissively. Then she heard footsteps approaching from a direction she wasn't expecting and stood up abruptly, whirling around and drawing one of her bladed tonfa.

"Relax," Rude said, putting his hands up in an I-come-in-peace gesture. "It's just us." He was, of course, wearing his trademark shades. It as a stylish look, but Val always found it slightly unnerving and borderline frustrating because it prevented her from seeing what exactly he was looking at at any given time.

"So it is Genesis after all," Tseng remarked quietly, coming over and kneeling next to the unconscious man.

"Apparently." She sheathed her tonfa after another quick look around to make sure no one had followed the Turks in.

"Well, let's get him back to headquarters," Rude said, leaning over and grabbing Genesis. He slung the other man across his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, and it was all Valeria could do to not burst out laughing at the bizarre sight.

Once they made it to the helicopter where Reno was waiting for them, they wasted no time in buckling Genesis in and taking off. Valeria spent most of the the helicopter ride back sitting towards the front with Reno, and they chatted about good lunch spots they could go to for their date. They were about to choose between a picnic on the outskirts and a homemade lunch at her apartment when her phone buzzed again.

"What?" she demanded, irritated at being interrupted. She still wasn't convinced that this little date was anything really romantically serious, but even so she'd been enjoying talking out plans with Reno.

"Hey," a vaguely familiar voice said, "it's Cloud."

"Oh, Cloud. Hi. Sorry for snapping," she added sheepishly, feeling just a little bit guilty for snapping at one of the world's most impressive heroes. Respecting others didn't come easy to Valeria, but she respected Cloud; it was hard not to, when it was clear how hard he tried to do the right thing. "What's up?" she asked.

"I'm at HQ with the others" he replied. "Reeve's wondering where you are."

"Let me check." She leaned forward and tapped Reno on the shoulder. "How far out are we?"

"Almost there." He pointed to a smudge on the horizon that she assumed was HQ; she generally came and went by land, and as such wasn't terribly familiar with how things looked from an aerial viewpoint. She trusted Reno's word, though; he was a fantastic pilot.

"We're almost there," she relayed to Cloud. "And by 'the others' do you mean…?"

"Everyone," Cloud confirmed.

"Great," she muttered. "It's a full-on party."

He chuckled quietly and then the line went dead.

They landed outside HQ a few minutes later, and some medics rushed up to the chopper once the rotors stopped spinning, all their attention focused on transferring Genesis to a gurney.

"We're taking him down to the infirmary," one medic told Valeria. "He's been missing-presumed-dead for years. Mr. Tuesti wants to make sure he's not critically injured or anything like."

"Let me know what you find?" Valeria requested.

The medic gave a crisp salute before joining her team in wheeling the unconscious ex-SOLDIER away. "Of course, ma'am."

The Turks left as soon as Genesis was safely on his way to the infirmary. They helped out the WRO when asked, but their ultimate loyalty was still to Rufus, and he'd called Tseng on their return flight, telling them to come back as soon as they were finished. Reno gave Valeria a playful wink and promised to call her, then hopped back into his chopper.

Once the arrival hubbub died down, Valeria and Yuffie made their way through the WRO base to a meeting room where the others were waiting. Valeria made sure to send a quick text to her sister letting her know that she was back safe from the mission. Before she entered the meeting room, her phone buzzed with her twin's response.

Home soon?

Valeria could practically envision her sister's hopeful face, and she sighed. Sorry, she typed out. More to do. Be home late. She hit send unhappily, knowing her younger twin would be displeased.

But the return message her sister sent didn't seem upset. No problem,it read. See you later.

She sighed again, knowing that her twin was probably either fuming mad or darkly depressed...and also knowing that there was absolutely nothing she could do about it either way right then. She snapped her phone shut, and walked into the room, resolving to find a way to make it up to Vanessa somehow.

An hour later, after an exhaustively thorough debriefing, she'd absorbed only one piece of information.

"Chain mail?" she said incredulously. "It was actually chain mail? Who the hell wears chain mail?!"

Reeve sighed. "Valeria…"

"Chain mail," she said disgustedly, leaning back in her chair and crossing her arms. "Ugh."

"Returning to the situation at hand," Reeve said sternly, giving her that could-you-please-behave look, "it seems like these soldiers in chain mail are part of a larger group, one that's responsible for the disappearances. As of yet, however, we don't know whether the disappearances are abductions, or simply people joining their group."

"We can't go after them if they're joining on their own," Cloud observed.

Reeve nodded. "Exactly. Even so," he turned to point at the screen behind him, "there have been numerous sightings of similarly dressed soldiers in relation to some attacks in wasteland towns. Assuming that those soldiers are from the same group, we can only assume that they are up to something."

"And you want us to find out what," Vincent stated, his expression inscrutable as always.

Reeve nodded. "We need to know what it is they're after. We've barely stabilized after the Deepground incident," he added. "We can't afford another disaster right now." He stood up and surveyed the room, his gaze passing over all of them in turn. "I want you to investigate this. All of you. Find out what they're doing. Vincent, Shelke. I want the two of you to go back out to Nibelheim. See if this group has been sighted there. Barret, take Yuffie and investigate near Calm. According to the reports we've been receiving, nothing has happened there yet, but perhaps some of the locals have noticed something that might be helpful. Cloud," he went on, turning to address the blonde, "I need you and Tifa to stay in Edge. If someone were to launch a large-scale attack, Edge would be an effective target. Cid couldn't make it here for the meeting", he added, nodding to an empty seat at the table where the airship pilot would have been sitting, "but he'll be flying around keeping on an eye on things, too."

"And me?" Valeria asked, pointing at herself.

Reeve gave a thin smile. "Don't worry, Captain, I haven't forgotten you. I'm putting Genesis in your care," he told her. "Once he's awake, get to know him better. Then," he continued, "I need you to go out west to the wastelands. Investigate the attacks, and report back."

She nodded. "Yes, sir."

"Good. You can all go." As the others started to file out of the room, however, he stopped her. "One more thing," he said. "I can't provide you with any extra personnel for back up, so I want you to take Vanessa with you."

She stared at him, trying to make sense of the words he'd just said. All the words sounded right, and seemed to be in the right grammatical order, and yet surely she'd misunderstood. "I'm sorry, what?"

"I want you to take Vanessa with you on your mission to the wastelands," Reeve repeated patiently.

Okay, yeah, that's what she thought he'd said. After a brief moment of contemplation, she found she really had only one response. "Have you lost your mind?"

Reeve sighed. "Valeria…"

"I can't take her out there without knowing the risks," she argued. "You said yourself that we don't have a lot of information about what's going on. I could be walking straight into bloodbath, and you want to me bring my sister with me? The same sister I've devoted my entire existence to keeping safe and away from harm? And let's not forget," she added angrily, "that I won't be alone on this mission. I'll be dragging along an ex-SOLDIER who was by all accounts out of his damn mind before he vanished without a trace. Oh, but not before creating a civil war within the SOLDIER department itself," she added, her voice full of false brightness. "And yet somehow, it would be a good idea to drag my precious twin sister into this mess?" She flailed her arms wildly. "Absolutely not! No way!"

Reeve heaved another sigh. "I can understand your concern-"

"Great," she said. "So it's decided: she's not coming."

-but she has the same powers you do," Reeve went on, acting as if she hadn't even spoken. "She can defend herself easily, enough should the situation escalate."

Valeria made a sound that was almost but not quite a growl. "I think you're missing the part where I don't want her in harm's way in the first place. I don't want there to be a need for her to defend herself. She probably won't even want to go," Valeria tacked on, throwing in an admittedly flimsy excuse just to add some padding to her argument.

Reeve, being brilliant, saw that last bit as the pathetic diversionary tactic it was. "A chance to see her heroic twin sister in action?" he remarked lightly, his tone of voice playful in a way that told her he was only humoring her because he was confident she'd cave on the issue sooner or later. "I doubt she'd be willing to give that up."

She snorted. "Now you're just being ridiculous."

"But not more so than you," he replied. "Your sister is far from helpless, Valeria," he added gently. "I know you want to keep her safe and I know why...but you can't just keep her sheltered for the rest of your lives. It's not fair to her, and it's not fair to you."

She scowled, not liking what she was hearing but unable to come up with a satisfactory rebuttal. "I won't tell her that you want her to go," she said at last, abandoning her reasonable attempts at diversion in favor of being childishly obstinate.

"Valeria," Reeve said, shaking his head, "you need to trust me on this. It will be good for both of you if she goes along for the mission. Not only is she capable of looking after herself should things go south, she would also be an incredible asset to the mission. I don't need to tell you what a strong spell-caster she is, not to mention being one of the best snipers I've ever met."

"She is a good shot," Valeria conceded with a grumble. "I bought her two matching pistols for our last birthday," she added almost as an afterthought. "She's murder with those…"

"So she's more than capable of defending herself," Reeve reiterated for what felt like the hundredth time; it was somewhat tiresome to keep hammering on the same point over and over again, but he knew that Vanessa's safety was always Valeria's top priority regardless of whatever else might be going on. "The decision's ultimately up to you, Captain," he said at last, after a moment of tense silence between them, "but I really do think that taking her with you on this mission could be very beneficial. For the mission, and for you."

"Mm," was the only response Valeria gave, and Reeve would have found that discouraging had he not caught of a glimpse of her pensive expression as she gave him a distracted nod and excused herself, citing a sudden need to go do some overdue paperwork.

"You really are home late," Vanessa observed as Valeria came in, looking exhausted and worn.

"You waited up?" Valeria asked, dismayed. "It's been almost two hours." She hadn't meant to delay her return home for so long, but she'd had a lot rattling around in her head, and she'd needed to throw herself into her heaping piles of memos, briefings, and expense reports before finally getting herself centered and calmed down enough to think straight again. On the plus side, at least she was finally caught up on her paperwork; the poor clerk Reeve had assigned to badger her about turning in papers punctually would be pleased, no doubt.

Her younger twin shrugged, giving a strained smile. "It wasn't such a bad wait," she said, trying to reassure her sister. "I've begun re-reading Loveless."

Valeria laughed, amusement threading its way through her weariness. "Again? How many times is that now?" she asked teasingly. "Ten? Twelve?"

"Fourteen," Vanessa said proudly, beaming like she'd won a prize.

Valeria rolled her eyes. "You're so ridiculous," she said, shaking her head with a wry grin. The she remembered an interesting tidbit she'd noticed in one of the files Shelke had sent her earlier. "Genesis likes Loveless," she remarked absently. "At least according to what little information they've patched together about him."

Vanessa gave her a completely blank look. "Who?"

Valeria realized, somewhat belatedly, that she hadn't filled her sister in on the events of her day. "Have I got a story for you," she said to her twin.

"Wow," Vanessa said with a low whistle once she was done. "No wonder you couldn't come back for dinner."

"There's more," Valeria added, just a bit reluctantly, because what she would say next had taken her some time to decide about.

"More?" Vanessa asked incredulously. "What else is there?"

"Once Genesis is recovered," she replied, "I have to take him with me. On a mission to the wastelands." She handed her sister a small map that marked out her destination.

"What!" Vanessa's expression of curiosity crumbled into one of extreme unhappiness. "That's far, Val. You'll be gone for days."

"Yeah," Valeria agreed softly. "It is pretty far."

Vanessa looked down, eyes shining with emotion. "I'll miss you," she whispered.

And there it was, the moment of truth. Taking a deep breath, Valeria took a chance...and took Reeve's advice.

"Miss me?" she said, putting on an innocent face and making her voice light so that her twin wouldn't pick up on her inner distress. "How on earth could possibly you miss me, you'll be with me the whole time!"

Vanessa looked up, frowning in utter bafflement. "What are you talking about?"

Valeria pasted a wide grin on her face. "What do you think I'm talking about, dummy? You're coming with."

A moment of shocked silence, then her sister gave a loud whoop and tackled her in a fierce hug. "Seriously?! Like, really, seriously?"

"Seriously," Valeria confirmed, giving a genuine laugh at her sister's enthusiasm. "Congratulations, baby sister. You're an active member of the WRO."

A/N: And there we have it! The refurbished version of Chapter 3. Hope you guys liked it. Chapter 4 will be posted pretty soon; it's going to be significantly longer than the original version, so there's that to look forward to. ;)

For those of you reading this story for the first time: I hope you're liking things so far; please don't worry about not reading the original versions of these chapters: you're truly better off, I promise. XD

Anyway, see you guys next time! :D