A/N: What's this? Two updates in one month?! :D

Enjoy.

Chapter 6:

Knocking on a door he had left less than 48 hours ago, Cloud felt nervous. When Aerith's mom opened the door with tears in her eyes, Cloud's heart could only sink.

"What's wrong?" he asked immediately, and Elmyra ushered them into the house.

"They took Aerith!" she exclaimed.

"Who did?" Barret then asked, his eyes searching the spacious one room that seemed to take up the entirety of the first floor.

"The Turks. They've been after my girl for years now. They caught up to her just outside here and bargained with her. If she would come quietly, they would let me and the little girl she was with live." Elmyra burst into tears again.

Barret stepped forward, a frown on his face. "I want to apologize. That little girl that Aerith was bringing here is my daughter. She was bringing her to safety, and I am so, so sorry that I failed my duty as a father to see my daughter to safety myself, putting yours into harm's way."

Elmyra waved his concerns off. "Don't worry about that. Aerith was always such a kind hearted girl, she would have helped anyway. Had your daughter not been with her when the Turks approached, they would have threatened me anyway. They've been after her for a long while now. It was only a matter of time before they would have pushed harder." Elmyra fell silent and so did Barret, unsure of what to say next. His main concern, however, was Marlene, and that soon got him talking once more.

"I, uh, do have to ask. Is my daughter here, or?" Barret questioned hesitantly, almost afraid for the woman to say the girl had been taken as well.

"Oh, yes, she is upstairs playing. First bedroom closest to the stairs," came Elmyra's reply, and without another word, Barret bounded up the stairs to find his daughter. While the two rebonded and reassured themselves the other was alright, Cloud stayed behind to talk with Elmyra a little bit, and managed to reassure her that they would be going into the Shinra building that day, hopefully, and rescue Aerith before taking them down. They would obviously need to reevaluate any plan they made once they got inside and saw what they were dealing with. All of it would be with the intent of getting Aerith out alive.

Cloud sat with a mug of tea in front of him, inhaling the scent and savoring the warmth seeping into his fingers. Barret came down to join them, and he couldn't thank Elmyra enough.

"Would I be able to impose on your hospitality for a little while longer?" he asked her. Nodding her consent, Elmyra was given a hug by the bigger man.

"My only stipulation is that you come back to her. I will not have her become an orphan just for a rescue attempt and petty revenge." This got Barret's assenting nod easily and with a smile from Elmyra, the two known remaining AVALANCHE members sitting down to formulate a plan that would ensure they not get killed. With Elmyra providing little snacks to fuel them and Marlene upstairs taking a nap, it took them only an hour to get their plan together. Get in, get out, simple as that.

It was time to put the plan into place.

The trip up to the Shinra building from the slums was simple enough. With help from the kids of the Sector 6 Wall Market, the two were able to climb up the dilapidated wall and step out onto the front steps of the Shinra building. They both had planned to go through the front of the Shinra building and overwhelm them, and if possible, perhaps wait to brandish any weapons until they got to the higher floors so they would be less likely to be kicked out.

Their infiltration went smoothly, and no one realized they were there until they reached the 60th floor and the doors opened to reveal guards there. Panicking, Barret shot one of them, leaving Cloud to take care of the other one. As they exited the elevators, a passing female working screamed at the bloodshed and took off running towards the stairs. Cloud took off after her to stop her from raising the alarm but it was too late. She had already barricaded herself in the stairwell and headed for the next floor to warn any that was willing to listen.

"We have to hurry! We need to get to the next level before they lock this one down," Cloud explained and he started hacking at the door that led to the stairwell. Barret contributed with his gunarm, and in no time at all, the two were headed towards the next floor.

The woman must have already alerted everyone here, because the entire staff lounge area was empty. There was a keycard with the number 65 on it lying on the floor, probably dropped in their rush to get to safety. Picking it up, they two advanced further, exploring every floor they got to until they arrived at Hojo's labs on the 67th floor. Exploring here as well, Cloud got a huge shock when he recognized the headless woman floating inside a Mako Pod near the entrance to the lab.

Reading the plaque that held the pod's information, Barret had only one question. "Who, or what, is Jenova?"

"An evil creature that beget an evil child," Cloud replied sourly, flashes of memory coming back to him from 5 years ago. "Let's just keep going. I don't think Jenova will be able to do much from her tank." Continuing further into the lab, they found a way upstairs, where they found Hojo cackling madly at the experiment he was currently running. Aerith was in the center tank, and when she saw Cloud and Barret, she pounded on the glass with her fists to try to catch their attention. The glass was so thick, however, that neither party could hear what the other was saying. Cloud rounded on Hojo, anger visible on his face.

"Hojo! Let her go!"

"Oh, and who's going to make me, you?" the scientist replied with a sneer. "Bring up the test subject! We'll see exactly what the both of them are made of." With a shriek they could all see but not hear, Aerith began pounding on the glass harder as the floor in the center of the tank moved upward, bringing a red quadrupedal creature with it. It began growling at the brunette, and with another silent scream, Barret's self-control broke and he started shooting at the tank.

"No, stop! You'll destroy all of my hard work!" Hojo screamed, but with another round of bullets, the glass shattered. Hojo rushed down onto the main floor to try to restore some semblance of order, but as soon as he was in sight of the red furred creature, it attacked him, and Hojo was now trying to prevent himself from being mauled.

"Bring in Specimen HO512! Do it! Now!" Hojo exclaimed, and with one great push, shoved the creature off of him. Getting to his feet, he staggered back onto the platform and locked himself into the control room, letting the monster that just rose from the depths of his labs destroy the intruders. Hojo fled along with some of his interns. He had to let President Shinra know that he had the terrorists in his lab. The Turks would probably be sent for, perhaps the Lieutenant General. But Hojo knew one thing: when their bodies were still cooling, he would have new test subjects to play with.

The fight with the monster went easily enough. Aerith stood off to the side while Cloud, Barret, and the red furred specimen known as Red XIII fought the thing. With Red's long ranged leaping attacks, the party was able to bypass the creatures that served as meat shields for the main monster, especially after learning that the monster would create more of them off of its body.

With its corpse lying amongst the glass shards in the remnants of the tank, the four of them headed back downstairs to gain access to the elevators. It would have been nice to take out the company from within, but since they had succeeded in finding and rescuing Aerith, they might as well see her home safely before attempting another attack, hopefully with Tifa by their side. When they got to the elevator, the button seemed to be stuck. A few seconds later, however, saw a taller man with a bald head walk in and just stand there.

"Going up?" he asked, and Cloud turned and paled, recognizing the figure. Barret didn't, however, and sassed the man back.

"We're goin' down, so you can take the other elevator," came the reply. The bald man smirked at them, before pointing up.

"I believe we are all going up," he reiterated, and he stepped aside to reveal a shorter man with dark hair and the traditional chakra mark of Wutai.

"We have a meeting with the President. Won't you come along?" With two Turks crowding the four of them in the elevator, they had no choice but be arrested, their hands handcuffed behind their backs before being brought before the president of the Shinra company.

There was snark all around, and the four of them were sentenced to spend the night in jail before being sedated and given to Hojo for experimentation. Barret was the only one not resigned to his fate, and fought the entire way. It was only luck that they all spent the night in jail instead of their own specimen chambers. The other ones had to be fixed before anymore could be added. No one got much sleep that night, and when they did, everyone's dreams could be described as horrific.