Commencement

Azul watched his troops prepare for the assault on Tamblin, arms crossed. The ones Lazard had already allocated to him had turned out to be ones who took orders well and were powerful. Even the group of mages he had from the Infantry (how could Lazard tell they were mages when he'd thought only Genesis could?) were some of the strongest and more than willing to try a new combination to see if it could work—and that very thing would give his attack some impressive firepower. Actually, if they could pull off one of the Deepground assault combinations, they'd tear a hole the size of the President's office in the wall, and Tamblin's forces could never defend such a huge hole.

Taking Tamblin would be a challenge. That was a point in favor of the assignment, and he really wasn't sure what he thought of a paper-pusher assessing him as the best to do it and probably succeed. Not that the new Head of Public Safety was wrong, just that his sort, those who never fought, rarely, if ever, made sound judgment calls. Yet, he'd made several in preparing this assault, including giving the field commanders actual power and authority to change the details as needed. And, that last was the second point which put him in favor of the assignment.

The group who had been sent back...Weiss he knew he couldn't beat, and unless he missed his guess, the younger Tsviet was stronger now than he had been. But then that little blond with the Turks, Cloud, could spar with Weiss and hold his own, which made him equally as strong, even when his body wasn't trained up—Azul had seen them spar once (they only had a couple times so far) and knew he'd never stand a chance. He also knew he'd never be able to beat Genesis or Vincent in a fight, though he still wasn't sure about Tseng, since he'd pretty much not seen him, only heard about him. A lot.

His problem with their goal was that fixing things, creating peace, wouldn't be beneficial to his goal of reaching for strength. If there was nothing left to fix, all they'd have to do is fight some stray monsters on occasion, and there'd be no challenge or purpose to life anymore. Deepground had suited him for that reason—they were aiming for strength, and were willing to crush everyone in their paths. Well, until they'd become pure bullies willing to kill their own for doing their job. He supposed it was possible Deepground would eventually have killed off all competition, and when that happened, he'd be in the same position of having no goal or purpose anymore.

Weiss didn't seem worried about what would happen after, but he also didn't seem to 'care' about strength or battle or the glory of being the victor. That meant it was likely Weiss could live peacefully, despite his strength, and Argento had always been in that category—she did what was necessary because it was necessary, and went with the flow for the most part. She'd never viewed any part of Deepground as 'necessary'. Oddly, he was starting to think both Rosso and Nero, who had been focused on strength as well, were now taking Weiss' stance.

That left him to work out what to do about the pending peace on his own. While Tamblin was a nice diversion, and it gave him the opportunity to both test his strength and kill with impunity (other than children, who shouldn't be at the Fort, and civilians who didn't attack him, who were in very short supply in Wutai in general), it didn't fix his own problem. Peace wasn't for him, but he respected Weiss too much to go against him. How long would he be able to keep that respect if they gained peace and Weiss only participated in sparring matches and monster exterminations?

"It looks like the forward group is ready," his mentee, Brent, said from behind him. "I made sure they knew the plan and their positions, and other than one new addition, who's now up to speed, they knew what they were aiming for. Are we ready to start? It looks like the others are heading out, too, so we can't wait much longer."

"I just need the Materia Corps. mages to tell me if they can make the hole I want in that wall, then we're good to go," Azul agreed. "Go check with them if you want an ETA for that." If they had all been literal 'Mages' in the way someone like Genesis was, he'd have noted that and addressed them properly, but the reality was that, while they were all reasonably good with magic, only about a third of them counted as 'Mages' in the truest sense.

"Will do!" Brent grinned in amusement, heading away—he'd already learned 'Azul-speak', which usually meant he made it sound like the person assigned to the task wanted to do it for themselves, not because he'd ordered them to do it. In his view, if they didn't want to know for themselves, they had no place as a commander in the first place, and Brent was going to become one when he hit First, even if he didn't have the official title of 'Commander'.

At first, Azul had been wary of taking a mentee, but when he'd watched Brent train, he'd seen himself as a younger man, aiming for strength but not always knowing how to get there. Before he'd realized it, he'd started giving him tips on how to use raw strength effectively in combat—which, like with Mages, meant learning a style of fighting which differed from SOLDIER's standard—and he realized he enjoyed passing on his knowledge to someone who legitimately wanted it. So, he'd asked if the younger man wanted him as his Mentor, and Brent had agreed...And the rest was history, as they liked to say. And thankfully, neither of their opinions had changed yet—Mentoring was good for them both. It helped that he didn't have to feed or clothe the other man, or lead him around by the hand, as he took all of his own initiatives and ran with them.

"Commander, the mages think they've got it and are moving into place to cast now," Brent announced his return with good news. And it was really time for Azul to stop wool-gathering, anyway. Mentoring must be making him soft if he'd start doing something so completely mundane...

"Right," the Tsviet agreed, then raised his voice in a bellowing shout of, "Places! We're ready to move out! Forward team, at the ready—we're on a timer, so act fast once the wall goes down!" Anyone who wasn't already in place scrambled into it, weapons raised as they braced for battle—

And then the mages cast from their perch on a nearby hill, and a writhing ball of red, black, dark blue, and dark purple surrounded by electric-like white bands of energy hit the wall. A fierce explosion sounded, rocking the ground under them as smoke blasted out in all directions and a rather strong shock wave hit them. Most of the soldiers of all ranks hissed curses at the unexpected and unbalancing wave, but the forward group managed to recover and head in. The rest began following, most of their movements obscured by the smoke and dust the explosion had caused, and the mages brought up the rear, now intended for healing and sniping runners.

As Azul and Brent were approaching the wall, the smoke cleared enough for them to see it—and both paused to stare as Brent gave an impressed whistle. "I'd say they did more than just give us a hole the size of the President's office," the younger man commented as they pulled even with the destroyed wall and shouts and battle sounded in all directions nearly all at once.

"It was—it's almost triple that size, and there's honestly not much left of the wall here," Azul agreed. "For unenhanced mages, they did much better than any of the mages in Deepground. I'd thought those ones were good but...Hmm, might have to ask them if they thought to add something to it for extra power..." He then gave his head a shake and made a mental note not to ever underestimate someone inclined to magic again, and said, "Okay, setting that aside for now, you and I are going to be looking for the commanders here and eliminating them, and if we see our people in a trouble spot, we'll intervene, get it under control, and move on. Got that?"

"Sounds fair. Do I need to report anything to you during battle, or just keep on until we've got no resistance left?" Brent asked.

"If something especially major changes and you don't think it can be handled by yourself and the nearest force, then let me know. Otherwise, keep on. And be sure to watch for modern Shinra weapons—we got most of the machine guns by blowing out the wall, but that doesn't mean those are all they have here. Our intel already told us that."

"And in the meantime, just hope Hewley cuts the power lines quickly so most of their machinery will shut down. Will do. See you later," the Third agreed, then turned off at the first intersection so he could head around the perimeter.

"And watch for bombs, since they don't run on a power supply!" Azul shouted after him, rolling his eyes at the stupidity of relying on someone else to cut the power supply.

"Nope, they have a powder supply!" Brent shouted back, laughing, and Azul had to chuckle.

"Cocky brat. Maybe that's part of why I don't mind his company," he muttered, then set his mind to his path right to the central, and command, building in Tamblin. As he walked, he killed any Wutains or AVALANCHE-uniformed people who attacked him, but that wasn't very many. It occurred to him to wonder why a Fort looked more like a park with decorative gazebos and pagodas rather than a proper Fort—its wall was really the only exception. And how had it given Shinra forces so much trouble for so long given its state as something obviously non-combative?

Maybe he'd have to do some checking into that after they'd taken it...

MB

Veld, like Cloud, had separated from the group once they'd gotten past the cave, and was currently looking down at his PHS in annoyance. If Cloud's message was right, Fuhito had decided to detour to Wutai in the last three days since he'd been seen in Midgar and would likely interfere with events. Likely significantly. Though, as he'd said before, the machine plans had been plants, and Tseng had decided to sell to Fuhito, so that had probably come from him. Since Fuhito was exceedingly hard to find and track, and had apparently taught those tricks to the Restrictors, he didn't mind 'her' doing it, but it was giving them extra problems now.

His best bet was still going to be to hopefully catch Felicia alone, because if Tseng was right, just seeing him would bring her memory back, and she'd be a lot easier to reason with if she knew he was her father. But, was 'alone' possible if Fuhito was there, and probably now out of the fight for a bit?

With a sigh, he shoved his PHS back in his pocket and made his way to the city well ahead of the Shinra troops, intending to slip in over the wall near the Da Chao Statue, which was also near where AVALANCHE was based. While they knew the pagoda they used was there, he hadn't been able to get any absolute intel saying she was there, but they had no intel saying she was anywhere else, either. He hoped she was indeed there just by the lack of her presence elsewhere, but that wasn't a guarantee—a fact he loathed with a passion. In the Turks' line of work, though, long shots and lack of guarantees seemed to be the norm. Especially with the five who had Minerva's Blessing amongst them.

At the wall nearest the Statue, he found a good place to hide and paused for a moment to examine it for patrols, and found two. There didn't seem to be anything technological on this section of the wall, meaning they had chosen to focus their defenses on the gate (this area was great for someone like him to get in, but not for an army to do so), so the patrols were what he'd have to deal with to get in. He could also see the top of the airship hovering above the city, but couldn't see the lower part of it from his current position—it only hovered just above the roofs of the area of town where they all only had one floor.

"Wowie, she's a beaut, ain't she?" Cid Highwind's distinctive accent said from behind him, making him turn to look at the man and Ansha.

"Sorry for the interruption, Sir," the Turk said in faint amusement, keeping her voice much lower than Cid's had been. "I guess we had the same idea about this being the best way to get into the city."

"As long as Highwind can keep his mouth shut so we don't attract attention, I don't mind," he replied in vague amusement and just as quietly, ignoring the younger, blond man's annoyed look. "It looks like we have two patrols, but they aren't going far from their posts."

She turned to look at the wall, then gave a nod and said, still keeping her voice low, "They should have changed shifts about half an hour ago, so eliminating them would give us an hour and a half—maybe less if someone decides to come looking for them when the attack on the front gate starts. If we don't eliminate them, we only have until they wake up, which will probably only be about an hour at best—Wutains are resistant to most of our spells and items, and they recover quickly from blows to the head."

"Unless we can get in without being seen," Veld commented.

"I don't think that's possible from here..." Ansha returned with a faint chuckle.

"...No, most likely not," he had to admit with a sigh of annoyance. Another complication! He should know better by now. For Turks, 'easy' was them not ending up hospitalized or dead, not the ease by which they could access what they needed. But oh, what he wouldn't give to have Vincent's ability to meld with shadows right now! "I should be able to shoot one from here, but it's not likely the second it'll take to re-aim will be fast enough for the second."

"So shoot the first while I get over there and scale the wall to get the second," she answered in amusement. "That should be enough distraction so the second won't notice my approach while they dive for cover and focus here, not on the wall below them. I brought a rope ladder for Cid, so you can use it to get in, too." At the last, she motioned at a backpack over her shoulders which he hadn't noticed before.

For a moment, he eyed her, then asked, "You'll be able to climb with that on?"

"I can run the obstacle course with it on," Ansha told him, still sounding very amused, and he rolled his eyes. Of course an engineer who carried tools around with her could climb and fight with them, too.

"Fine. Get ready, then," he told her, then faced Cid as the man began to open his mouth. "No, Cid—just keep your mouth shut for the moment. Once the patrol is dealt with, it won't matter nearly so much if you make some noise." Again, the man silenced, but was definitely very, very annoyed.

She nodded, so he drew his gun and aimed at the man furthest from the direct path to the wall, and thankfully also furthest from the easiest place to get up it. Ansha crouched by him in a sprinter's crouch, watching the wall intently, so he shot, and the man went down. As the other Wutain threw himself down behind the wall (yes, well before he could re-aim), the Lady Turk launched into a sprint to cover the distance to the wall at the best place to climb. She had reached it before the other Wutain chanced a quick look in the general direction of where Veld was hidden before ducking out of view again. Since Ansha was then out of his view, her climbing the wall did indeed go unnoticed, and the other patrol looked out from another point on the wall.

He was going to walk right into Ansha if he kept going in that direction, which was amusing.

It took about a minute for Ansha to launch herself over the wall at the patrol, and while he could see a bit of a scuffle, it obviously didn't take long—less than a minute later, she rose, gave a wave at the two of them, then pulled out the rope ladder to find a good spot to fix it in place.

"Okay, you can talk now. Until she tells you otherwise for you to make your way through town," Veld said in a normal talking voice to Cid as he made his way towards the wall.

The man followed as he asked in annoyance, "Seriously, you lot can't fucking talk while you're workin'?"

"Not when we're trying to get into places we technically aren't supposed to be," Veld replied in amusement. "Announcing our presence by being loud would defeat the purpose of going unnoticed." The mechanic and engineer just stared at him for a minute, then turned his gaze to the ship.

"Can't wait to see how that lovely works!" the blond man suddenly grinned.

"And you can tell it's an airship from here?" Veld asked curiously. "Or is that from the data you were given?"

"Oh, no, someone threw the file at me, told me where to be and when, and buggered off right quick. First thing I saw was the photo—and damn, she's a real beaut! Gonna be tech there I've got no idea how to use, but I'll figure it out right quick!" The man looked so ecstatic that he knew right away Cloud had been right to send him. And, the fact was that Cloud had only recognized it as an airship because he'd seen a similar one before, while Cid had recognized what it was from the photo. He'd been the right choice, loudness and vulgarity aside.

By then, they'd reached the wall, so he motioned Cid up ahead of him, and the man started climbing. He was limber and fit enough for the trip to go well, and Veld could quickly follow, parting ways with the two as Ansha gathered the ladder and went after their engineer—Cid had just jumped down the far side on his own. Making his way towards the pagoda he needed, he knew he'd have to be careful about getting in, and might have better luck using the rooftops of the several-layered building. It didn't take long to find a way onto the first layer and work his way up.

On the third floor near the far end of it from where he'd started, he looked into a room—and found Felicia sitting cross-legged with her eyes closed, her brown hair (just like his!) cut much shorter than he'd known her to wear it before. Her eyes were also brown, but more of the hazel of her mother's, rather than a match for his, and she had a fit, toned fighter's body. Her pants and shirt were forest green while her boots and gloves (why was she wearing them when relaxing?) were brown. A good quality katana lay on the wooden floor beside her.

Slipping into the room, he said softly, "Felicia."

The reaction was immediate—she seized and drew her sword, pointing it at him, gaze fierce and ready to fight—

And then she stopped as her eyes widened in a mix of puzzlement and shock. "Daddy...?" she asked slowly, sword wavering as confusion and pain took over her expression. It hurt to see her like that, especially when she swayed and managed to stay on her feet with an act of will.

"I'd have come sooner, but Hojo told me you were dead, and when I was finally told you were still alive, I then had to find you," he told her gently. "You've learned very well how to stay out of sight, so all I could do was hope you really were here. I took that chance because—finding you became my priority as soon as I knew you were still alive."

She still looked pained and confused, but her sword lowered and she took a few stumbling steps towards him. "I thought—I had no memory, so—I hadn't been wanted..." She paused before her eyes widened and she breathed, "Fuhito's going to attack Midgar! He'll kill all of you! I'd have helped him—I don't know if I still should, though, the Planet...It's dying because of the Mako Reactors..."

"I know. We know," he told her, holding out his arms to hug her. "We have five people with us who have Leviathan's Blessing now—if you've been living here for at least a year, you know what that is, right? They told us the Mako Reactors have to go, but that we can't do it in a way which will cause the Planet suffering, which is just as much a kill switch as the Reactors. Right now, Reeve and his assistant are making the Reactors much more efficient, and because he's now on our side, I've been able to talk with him about other energy sources to replace it with. We've even lined up Rufus to be able to take over for President Shinra, and we're just waiting for him to be ready. He knows what's at stake and will agree to replace Mako with other, safer energy forms."

For a moment, she just stared at him, processing the words, then her eyes widened again and she asked, "Five with the Blessing in Shinra? And you're already fixing it?"

"Yes, and we are," he smiled gently, arms still out.

Suddenly, she burst into tears and threw herself into his arms to hug him tightly, and he returned the hug just as tightly. "Daddy..." she whispered, showing how close she still was to the woman just out of childhood she'd been the last time he'd seen her. Of course, he was her father, so she could probably be his age and would still be 'his little girl' to him. Having his emotions unlocked and admitting Tseng was as much his son as Felicia was his daughter had been cathartic, but this was more like a feeling of coming home. Knowing she was alive and holding her in his arms were two very different things, and this—he wouldn't give it up for anything.

"Elfé, are you—what the—a Turk!" a voice said from the doorway in alarm, and he knew the only reason he hadn't been attacked yet was because Felicia was in the way of whoever had joined them.

Opening his eyes to look past Felicia's head, he saw a man in the doorway wearing camouflage pants and bandana around his head with a gray shirt and brown boots. "Let me guess—Shears?" His hair and eyes were brown and he definitely wasn't Wutain.

The man's brow furrowed in complete confusion as he asked, "How do you know that?"

"One of my Turks—who has Leviathan's Blessing, by the way—told me my daughter was still alive. He wasn't completely sure if you'd joined her and Fuhito the Destroyer yet or not, but I could prepare to actually find her with his information. And now I have another bone to pick with Hojo, the bloody liar," he informed the man calmly.

"He's trying to save the world!" Shears scowled. "Fuhito, I mean—we know what Shinra's like already."

Veld's gaze became a cold smile which caused the scowl to drop off Shears' face to become an expression of alarm. "No, Fuhito is trying to destroy the world and kill every living being on it, not save it. He's just after Shinra first because Shinra is the only group currently on the Planet with a hope of opposing him. This comes directly from the five people we have with Leviathan's Blessing—he's not at all altruistic and thinks everything must be destroyed to save the world, maybe not realizing that killing off everything is a planetary kill-switch, too, and that creating suffering is as well. Of course, he's as psychotic as Hojo, so I'm not surprised he sees things that way."

"You're lying!" Shears replied with a scowl.

"He's telling the truth," Felicia said quietly, tears having tapered off. She pushed back from Veld and turned to face Shears as she wiped the tears off her face. "I had wondered at a few of the things Fuhito's said, but I was missing fifteen years of memories, so I had no choice but to trust him. And from some of the things he's said, he plans to use me as the sacrifice to summon the being which will obliterate all life on the Planet. It's also true he's going after Shinra first because they're the ones with the sheer power to be able to stop him."

Shears' expression turned shocked as he asked slowly, "But he wouldn't sacrifice his most powerful warrior or AVALANCHE's leader, would he?"

The younger woman closed her eyes as she rubbed the back of one arm. "Maybe he wouldn't if the Summon Materia he needs to activate wasn't grafted into my arm. But it is, and he doesn't 'care' enough about any human to bother trying to find a way to spare me." Her eyes opened again to look at him. "I know that, too. Even you can tell how cold he is to humans."

"...And that Turk is really your father?" Shears asked slowly.

"Yes," she agreed. "Seeing him again brought back my memory. If it's true they're working to fix things, then..." She paused and turned to face Veld with a furrowed brow as she asked, "What can you even do to spare me and those who follow me before they follow Fuhito? And why are you in Wutai? Just to get me?"

"I'm here just to get you," Veld admitted. "One of my Turks came to collect the Princess to get her away from people who are trying to kill her or get her killed. The majority of the Shinra army came here to heavy-hand the war because the Wutains have been killing off their High Nobles, the ones who were truly good people and taught everyone discipline. My Wutain Turk only barely survived their attack on his family, and because people like Crescent Unit and the Imperial Assassins are in on this plot, we first had to eliminate most of the people doing the actual torturing and killing."

Both of them just stared at him in shock, so he decided to take the chance and offered, "If you and those loyal to you are willing to help us eliminate those people, I'm sure I can use that as sufficient leverage to ensure your safety and your freedom. Details we'll have to work out later, because the attack is due to start shortly—Tamblin is already under siege."

"The High Nobles don't have to obey the law, though..." Felicia murmured.

"And that's a blatant lie. The only law they can refuse is conscription—they can't be forced to fight for a cause they don't believe in. All other laws, they have to obey," Veld told her plainly, and both Shears and Felicia paled.

Suddenly, Felicia said, "I have to talk to Yoruto (1)!" then ran from the room, followed quickly by Shears. Not knowing the name, Veld followed curiously, though more cautiously than the other two were running down halls and stairs.

Notes:

(1) This is a random name, and probably won't ever come up again. He's an older Wutain man, though, and is someone likely to know the truth about the High Nobles, not what Fuhito's been spreading around. In the interests of not being redundant, their actual discussion isn't all that important, only that Yoruto can affirm what Veld just told her. And does it in front of a lot of the AVALANCHE members, Wutain or otherwise.