A/N: Question: How much detail do you want me to give on the events in Wutai when the group finally gets the okay to heavy-hand the War? Lots? A little? Moderate? If it's only 'a little', there will only be...maybe 3-4 scenes (2-3 chapters at most) which happen there to give everyone the gist of it, but if it's 'lots', that could end up being several chapters as it would become an arc of the story in its own right. And most of them would be from the PoV of people not the main five who went back. Or, would it be easier if I gave a poll for people to vote on?

Belonging

Cloud was still in Weapons and it was getting towards the end of the work day. As he sat back from his work with a sigh, he saw an unfamiliar man pass by and step into Scarlet's office, closing the door behind him. That door was never closed—Scarlet made sure it wasn't. A glance around showed him only a couple others were still in the Lab, but they were on the far side, heads bent over a schematic, so likely hadn't noticed. The man had been dark haired and large—what he'd have called 'heavy-set'—but definitely hadn't been a SOLDIER. Actually, he hadn't worn any of the uniforms, but a suit.

Gathering his things, he wondered if he should wait or leave, but Scarlet's raised voice decided him and he went to the door with his things in hand. Pushing it open (which was technically taboo because of 'privacy issues', but hey, he was a Turk, so he could toss that in the trash), he asked, "Are you ready to go, Scarlet?"

The man turned to look, then glared at him and bit out, "You're not supposed to enter rooms with closed doors, brat."

Cloud raised a brow as Scarlet giggled, then he replied, "Yeah...You do realize you're talking to a uniformed Turk, right? And unless this was a meeting about something above my clearance level—which Scarlet would have warned me of before you got here—I have every right to walk in if I want." The man first gaped, then glared at him, and the boy looked at the blond woman to ask, "So, are you ready? They're already waiting on us because I finished late, too."

She blinked, but then smiled and nodded. "Yes—if I hadn't been interrupted, all I had to do was put a few things away. Hold on while I do that." Quickly, she picked up some of the things off her desk and put them in a locking drawer, then gathered her papers—those would migrate to one of her shelves once she had them all.

"So who's supposed to be waiting for you, anyway?" the man asked suspiciously.

"The Turks. Who else?" she asked with a quirked brow, tipping her head pointedly in Cloud's direction.

"Are you in some sort of trouble, then?" the man asked apprehensively, actually looking worried about her.

"No, not at all," she replied, gaze becoming a smirk. "Every so often, they invite me to their private cafeteria to have supper with them. The food is easily as good as the best restaurants in the city, so it's worth giving up an evening to join them. For non-Turks, it's by Turk invite only, though."

"They don't have a cafeteria," the man's brow furrowed in confusion.

"Who is this man, though, Scarlet?" Cloud asked her curiously as she started giggling again. Until she'd put her papers on the shelf, she didn't answer.

Finally, she faced the two again and said, "This is Santos Kyrill (1) from Urban Development. He used to be in my department, and we've been friends for a long time, but he couldn't handle—what this place was. Sometimes, I think I'd have been better off following him, but honestly...I make weapons. It's the way my mind works, even if I can divert it for short spans of time."

Cloud eyed her thoughtfully for a minute, then asked, "So, do you want him to join us, at least this once, so he knows there really is a cafeteria on our floor? The same rules are applicable either way—you'll both still have to be Blind to go in or out."

She only paused for a moment before nodding and asking, "If it's not too much trouble...?"

Cloud shrugged and pulled out his PHS to send a message to Lakis. "I'll send ahead to let them know."

"Thanks," she agreed, then faced the man and said, "Let's go, then."

"Fine," he sighed faintly.

They both followed Cloud to the elevator and to the Turks' floor, where Lakis was waiting and Lenno and Viney were just finishing up something. Both other men sighed tiredly as Lenno asked, "Again?" and fetched someone's abandoned suit jacket to put around Scarlet's shoulders.

"It's not like I have an abundance of suit jackets to just throw on," she told him in annoyance, and he chuckled.

It was Lakis who said cheerfully, "Then you just might like something Leana's been working on for you since your last visit. Let's get you both Blinded for the rest of the trip to the cafeteria, then." As he spoke the last bit, he cast Blind on the two engineers, and Cloud took Scarlet's hand again.

"What do you mean?" the blond woman asked in surprise.

"You'll see once we get there," Lakis answered in amusement, leading Santos through the hidden halls with a hand on his shoulder. Cloud led Scarlet after them, and Lenno and Viney caught up to them not too long after.

Once in the room, several Turks called greetings to Cloud and Scarlet as Lakis removed the Blind spell, and Santos had to just gape at the room—and the fact that Rufus and Reeve were there, too (actually, that last surprised Cloud as well)—but Scarlet quickly joined a table of her own accord, pulling Cloud along with her. Vincent and Reeve were sitting at the next table with Veld and Anki, and Rufus was at a table with Ruluf, Sirra, Ansha, and Verde just past them.

At the table Scarlet had chosen, Leana, Eonna, and Derin were already sitting, and Cloud realized the woman was actually interested in the 'something' Leana had been working on for her. So, he readily sat beside her with the group, and Santos took the last free seat, even as the blond woman asked Leana, "Lakis mentioned you were apparently working on something for me? Something I'd be interested in?"

The dark haired woman grinned and agreed, "It took being reminded of exactly who and what Lady Shinra was for me to put the pieces together, but the one major thing was that she always encouraged us to find and use all our skills. One of mine that I've been ignoring—Turks don't really have any use for it—is tailoring and clothing design. I've been thinking about your situation since the last time you were here and wondered if there wasn't a way to make an adjustment without actually upsetting anyone else. Here's a sketch of what I came up with." She then pulled out a folded sheet of paper and flattened it out so Scarlet could see what she'd drawn.

Cloud and Scarlet both looked at it—and blinked in amazement. What she'd sketched and lightly colored in was a formal, elegant dress which sufficiently covered the woman's chest while drawing the eye to what people like the President would be looking for. The base was still red, but there were inch-wide straps over the shoulder and an almost heart-shaped neckline which sat just above the breast at its lowest. At the waist was a belt designed to form a 'V' over the belly with tassels hanging lower, to about the knee, and the skirt had more flair than her current one. Along the neckline and part of the torso area, there were unique designs which drew the eye and emphasized the wearer's curves. Both the belt and those designs were in what appeared to be a mix of gold, blue, silver, and black.

"Now, what I was thinking was to use silk threaded through with ruby thread, which has a shimmer to it similar to tinsel," Leana commented, when she saw their awe, and tapped the base of the dress. "It would create a delicate shimmer and draw the eye, though the thread I'd have access to isn't actually made of any kind of stone. The other threads for the belt and patterns would be the same—shimmery, and in thread-of-gold, thread-of-silver, sapphire thread, and obsidian thread. Because the dress itself only has a bit of shimmer to it, these other threads would stand out and emphasize all the right places—without you being obscenely uncovered. Give me the word and I'll hijack the materials I need from our tailor so I can make it." (2)

For a few long moments, Scarlet just stared at it longingly, but then met the other woman's gaze and asked, "Would this really be acceptable to them, though?"

"Heidegger's suspended pending the results of a dual investigation," Vincent said blandly from the next table, having obviously overheard them. "I'm not sure anyone else actually cares what you're wearing, as long as they can get into it easily. We prefer you're covered, so that's a good compromise for us, too."

First, both Scarlet and Santos blinked in surprise, then the woman asked, "How likely is it Heidegger will get off on the list of potential crimes?"

"He can't, because it was us he decided to hijack funds from, and even the President is pissed with him for significantly reducing our effectiveness," Veld answered from beside Vincent, his gaze amused as he looked at her. "We needed an excuse to be able to hit him—for a lot of reasons. That he gave us a ready-made one the President sees as a betrayal makes it easy to eliminate him regardless."

The woman blinked in surprise as Santos asked incredulously, "Wait, there's anyone stupid enough to steal from the Turks?"

"Two people that we now know about, actually," Veld replied, lips twitching. "Though one was skimming off the top of the other, so I don't know if that qualifies as hijacking it from us or as hijacking it from Heidegger. As for the current head of Public Safety, he won't be there much longer, or even alive if we have anything to say about it. Admittedly, it took us a good—around twenty years—to actually investigate it, so...He wasn't completely wrong in deciding to take that route. He just should have realized it would be found eventually and pulled out before then."

Santos made a face, but Scarlet looked back at the design Leana had done. Finally, she met the other woman's gaze and said, "I think, if you're really willing, I'd like to try it."

Leana grinned and pulled the paper back as she agreed, "I'll get right on that, then. Cloud will let you know when I'm ready for actual fitting. It should only take a couple weeks—it would have been faster, but, well—work."

The blond woman chuckled—then blinked at Cloud as he seized something furry and brown by the scruff of its neck, something he'd seen out of the corner of his eye. "Is that a raccoon?" she asked in amazement as it squeaked several times in alarm and dropped the papers it had been holding. They had shiny silver lines running through them, and Cloud realized they were the schematic papers Scarlet used for specific sizing due to the grid of metal which was impossible to accidentally erase.

"Seriously?" Cloud asked the raccoon in annoyance. "I guess I wasn't specific enough when you stole my pen before. To reiterate—don't steal from me, and don't steal from anyone with me, either." He then dropped it onto the table and added, "Get going, before I change my mind." The raccoon bolted for another table in the room, where Reno sat—and virtually everyone else in the room was laughing at the scenario. Cloud turned to look at the red haired Turk and asked, "Have you named it yet?"

"Yeah," Reno agreed. "Ya know, you're pretty much the only one ta catch 'im. Twice at that. So, since he keeps bringin' me shit from who knows where and ain't gettin' caught, I called 'im Sly, yo!"

"Hex and Sly," Cloud sighed. "Lovely names, you two!" he added in a raised voice so Tifa could hear.

"Behave or I won't feed you, Cloud!" Tifa replied in annoyance from the kitchen.

The blond boy just smirked, prompting Scarlet to ask, "That sounded like a pretty serious threat."

Cloud shrugged and told her, "Yeah. For about half an hour at most. It's not in her nature to refuse to feed someone, let alone a friend, so what she actually 'said' was that I'd be the last to get my meal."

That made the other nearby Turks snort in amusement and add agreement, but then Derin asked with a small, puzzled frown, "Is this for some sort of piloted suit?" They all looked to see him holding the papers Sly had tried to steal from Scarlet (and it occurred to Cloud to wonder where she'd been keeping them), eying the schematics on the inside curiously.

"I've been working on those for a few weeks only," Scarlet offered, blushing a bit as she saw what he held. "I needed to refine them more before the specs started to make sense. Those—there's two differing types there now—are my second try."

To Cloud's surprise, Santos scowled and told her, "I already said those schematics made no sense and wouldn't even move. Why are you even still wasting time on that?"

"Maybe because some people aren't as narrow-minded as you," Cloud returned coldly, instinctively feeling he had to defend Scarlet—just that she'd tensed at Santos' words told him enough. "Because I break your so-called rules all the time. It's viable, just not the way it was originally done."

"Listen, you little brat, no amount of wishful thinking will fix something that's broken too badly to even exist," Santos glared at Cloud.

Before Cloud could answer, Reeve's voice cut in with, "Actually, these are viable and could be done. I'd like to help with the prototype, because there's already work I could use them for in the very near future."

Everyone in the room turned to stare at him, seeing how he was standing behind and just off to the side of where Derin sat, the schematics in his hands as he eyed them thoughtfully—and Cloud noted the Cait Sith on his shoulder, who gave a grin and wave to the boy. That was utterly bemusing (could Cait Sith somehow have those bits of memory, too?), so he turned back to Reeve's examination of the papers he held.

"You...think that's viable?" Scarlet asked slowly, and Cloud looked up at her, noting how there was a faint bit of hope in her eyes as she watched the younger man warily.

Reeve's dark, kind eyes lifted to hers as he said, "I don't know about your previous prototype of this, but I could see ways it wouldn't be viable—if you'd tried to put both of these sets of specs in the same unit, for example. Because you've separated them out and defined what each was intended to do, they're both viable and capable of being made—it just needs some fine-tuning. My work on Cait Sith—" (He paused to point at the cat on his shoulder, who then waved and said a 'howdy' to everyone in the room.) "—tells me things with a humanoid shape can be made to fit these kinds of specs."

After a long moment, Scarlet smiled and said, "Maybe I was too hasty when I first judged you, Reeve. Since some of their functions fall under Urban Development anyway, I wouldn't mind the help to fine-tune them."

"Great," the younger man smiled. "I'll check my schedule and let you know tomorrow when I have time to work on this with you. Or when I can find some time. You can keep the rights, too. The idea's yours, after all."

"We'll worry about those kinds of details tomorrow," Scarlet answered. "Did you want to keep them overnight to familiarize yourself with them more?"

"Sure," he agreed, then gave a nod and returned to his seat with them to examine them more.

"But you trust him to take the schematics and claim them himself..." Santos muttered just loud enough for someone right next to him or with Mako enhancements to hear.

"Reeve is honorable to a fault," Scarlet bit out quietly, glaring at him. "He's not so dishonorable he'd claim something that's not his. I barely even know him and know that about him, so how is it you, as his employee, somehow don't? Or wait, is it because you take every opportunity to hijack others' work, so assume everyone else must be like you to justify your own crimes?"

All three of the Turks' eyes widened as Santos' turned furious and Cloud's breath caught. He was sure that man was going to cause trouble with how angry he was—

Only, he never got the chance to do anything as he suddenly slumped over in sleep.

"Well, okay," Tifa sighed from beside the table, carrying two trays of three plates each. The others looked at her to see Hex on her shoulder with a Materia in one of her arms, held tightly by one paw. "I guess that's one way to stop a fight. And I think I created a monster when I gave Hex Materia." Giggles sounded around the room.

Cloud grinned at her and said, "I'm not sure that's a monster when she knew she had to stop that. She's almost as intelligent as a human, so if she's going to help keep the peace like that, it's not a bad thing."

"Until she runs off with Sly and comes back with someone else's possessions, and I have no idea whose in order to return them," Tifa answered dryly, setting the tray down and distributing the meals.

"Hey, Darlin', you've gotten some 'gifts', too?" Reno called over to her.

"That's what I just said, Reno," Tifa replied, collecting the trays, stacking them, and turning back to the kitchen.

"Give 'em to me, yo," he offered the younger girl. "Chances are I'll recognize some or most of the shit they bring back—shiny things like jewelry—so if ya pass 'em on ta me, I'll have a better chance of returnin' it. An' we'll have ta start passin' on word about this so folks know to check with us if something's missin', yo."

"Come over later so I can give those things to you, then," Tifa agreed, rounding the counter into the kitchen to go back to work.

"Will do!" Reno agreed cheerfully.

Cloud then looked at Scarlet, who was staring down at her plate without eating anything, and asked her, "Are you sure he's a friend after he treated you like that?"

She sighed and answered, "I'm not sure. I used to think so, but...Even when I originally showed the first schematic to him, he just shot it down, while you actually assessed it and pointed out that the major problem was lack of actual purpose—a purpose which would make it more viable by default. Why did you think that, by the way?"

"Why shouldn't I?" Cloud asked in confusion. "Your department already makes semi-humanoid Sweepers and other similar machines, so this just—it's like the Sweepers evolved, is all. It should never have warranted a complete 'shutting down' of the idea to begin with. The only difference was that you already knew what you wanted the Sweepers for."

The woman smiled faintly at the reply, then ruffled his hair before turning to her meal and actually eating it. Only then did Eonna say, "I don't think we want to see him back here. You've been fine here, Scarlet, so we don't mind you coming, but he made a very bad impression on us all just now. I hope you're not offended that your 'friend' won't be able to come here with you again."

"I somewhat had the impression he'd only be here as a one-off anyway," Scarlet replied, waving her off. "But if I'm going to be here, it's not to be shot down or..." The blond paused for a moment before slowly going on, "I think this is the most 'human' I've felt since I was five years old and my own mother forgot she even had a child. I'd never have thought the Turks would be—the most human people I'd find, but...If you'll have me here, I actually want a chance to enjoy myself for a few hours. I obviously won't get that with Santos, so I'd rather he not come back, too."

The other three Turks smiled, but Veld leaned over to them to say, "Then keep coming by. You don't need Cloud to drag you up here as long as there's a Turk here who can cast Blind to lead you in. Since we nearly all stay for supper every day now, there should always be someone to let us know you'd like to join us."

"Really? That would be great! Thanks!" Scarlet suddenly grinned, and began eating with gusto.

Topics turned lighter after that, and both Scarlet and Cloud moved to different tables before Eonna woke Santos so he could eat. The difference was that Ruluf had left with Sirra, so Scarlet joined Rufus' table, and Veld got a call from the President, so Cloud joined Anki, Vincent, and Reeve's.

"So...How did Reeve end up here?" Cloud asked Vincent in bemusement as he sat, keeping his voice low so Santos wouldn't hear.

"Heya, Laddie!" Cait Sith grinned, jumping to the table-top and parking himself in front of Cloud, who blinked at him in mild surprise. "Yer lookin' a mite on the tiny side!"

"That would be Reeve's memory recall," Vincent answered, and Reeve looked wryly amused. "He somehow knew what the Shinra Manor Labs had in them to know Hojo could never have made my arm there—it doesn't have the facilities for engineering at that level. If it hadn't been me he'd been talking to, that could have been very bad. I think he was like Kunzel—his memories were all on the subtle end, so weren't recognized as such until that little comment which only a Turk would have caught. And apparently, Cait Sith has both been made early and has those memories, too."

"How?" Cloud blinked in amazement. "I'd wondered when Cait Sith waved at me in particular, but—just, how? He's a robot, not a human!"

"We were actually discussing that when you came in with Scarlet and Santos," Reeve offered. "The most I can think of is that an advanced enough A. I., or an artificial intelligence, actually counts as a sentient being in its own right. That is, even if Cait Sith's body is made of metal, he's still an actual being whose memory banks counted as close enough to our real memories for them to be sent back. Maybe it was just chance, or maybe he arrived back when he did because I'd recently finished his body, but there was a marked behavioral difference between the Cait Sith I first made and the one I woke up to about three weeks later."

Cloud's expression was wryly amused as he agreed, "That would probably make sense, at least partially. But just having independent 'intelligence' doesn't make a being 'alive', and that's really Minerva's key premise. 'Alive' has energy and feeling before it has thought—that's true of Minerva, too, as far as I know. The intelligence helps, but I think it's also because Cait Sith has feelings of his own, not just thoughts."

"That Ah do, Laddie," Cait Sith agreed in a thoughtful tone.

"Hmm..." Reeve murmured, then slowly nodded. "I'd have to look into that, but it would make sense to be a combination of the two things."

"And you're all right with this?" Cloud asked him curiously, motioning around the room.

The older man (though a younger Reeve) gazed at him thoughtfully for a moment before saying, "Other than it being Turk-intensive, I don't have a reason to have an issue. I'm more surprised by your presence here, Cloud. After all...You never really got along with anyone in Shinra."

Cloud looked away, but a vaguely amused Anki commented in a dry tone, "He's been doing just fine as long as he's sticking to engineering."

"Don't think I'm not doing Turk-ish things, too," Cloud told her with an annoyed look...which came across more like a pout and made her lips twitch in amusement.

"Of course," she agreed. "We know you do. You just do it all from the background."

That made the boy sigh and look away.

Rufus. Cait Sith and Reeve both. Scarlet. Heidegger's pending assassination. Palmer's as well, likely.

As good as all that was...How long would it be before the President noticed something and retaliated?

Notes:

(1) When I first started this scene, I had been thinking it was her unwanted stalker, but then my mind turned it into this. Whether or not Santos will show up again, I don't know yet, but hey, he'll be added to the OC list, so if he does, you can just check there.

(2) This is the only time the dress will be described, and I primarily did this to emphasize how different it is from the one Scarlet's wearing right now. Yes, she will be putting this dress on soon.