Once again, new chapter is here.

Andrew Mackenzie: More and you shall have.

Enjoy!

After their unexpected break, Crimson reassembled the party inside of Aerith's home to outline their travel plan through the use of a map. She pointed to a spot on the map she was fairly sure that Cloud and Tifa were intimately familiar with. "The Shinra manor was where Cloud was held during those years in captivity, so it'll be the best location to start our search for some way of restoring his memory. At the very least, we'll see if someone spotted Hojo wandering around."

"The town itself was burned down," Tifa said. "What makes you so sure we'll find anything there?"

"They rebuilt it," Kunsel said, sparing Crimson the effort. "They rebuilt it and repopulated the town with people who would act as though nothing had happened. They did the same thing in Kalm, before the Nibelheim incident."

Crimson frowned. "How do you know even know that?"

"I have my ways," he said, keeping his tone flat.

"Ugh…" She turned back to the map and sighed. "What he said is true. In cases where mass damage has been done by accident they cover it up to hide evidence of their responsibility."

"How is it possible to do such a thing?" Red XIII asked. "Such destruction cannot go unnoticed easily."

"Unless the area is closed off and there are no witnesses," Tifa pointed out, a note of fury in her voice as she looked to Crimson. "What Hojo said back then was true as well, wasn't it?"

Cloud stood ramrod straight at the mention and looked directly at Crimson as well. "Is that what happened to the survivors of Nibelheim?"

"… Hojo… wasn't lying," she admitted, very reluctantly. It wasn't something she was proud of, and she immediately felt the need to defend herself. "I wasn't part of the operation, but… it would fall under the Turks jurisdiction to ensure that it was done in secrecy. Chances are you two are the only ones who bore witness to it and came out alive, while the rest are…."

The silence that followed was heavy. It was permeated with a sense of guilt and anger from the former Turk and the two who hailed from Nibelheim. Surprisingly, Aerith was the one who broke it before it grew too tense and someone lashed out.

"What's done is done," she said, her voice soft, yet firm. "The guilty party isn't even with us at the moment. We should focus on what we can do now."

"…Right," Cloud finally said. It was clear from his tone he was restraining himself from getting angry. Crimson didn't blame him for it. These were his friends and neighbors who either died or were taken, not to mention he himself was a victim.

Nevertheless, she continued. "We'll head to Kalm as soon as we're done here, in order to re-supply. Because of the chaos at headquarters right now we have a window to escape, but they'll likely have Midgar on lockdown soon enough. Once we're out of Midgar, we'll be off their radar for the time being and can plan out a trip to get there without notice."

"I'll be coming as well," Aerith added. "There are things I need to know and do, and Shinra will search for me again in due time. It's better that I disappear with you, and I can help with keeping Cloud's headaches in check and healing if need be."

"Are you sure?" Crimson asked. While the help would be appreciated, since it would mean she didn't have to knock him out every time with a sleep spell, it would likely be dangerous. "It's a long and dangerous trip, and we won't be coming back any time soon, if ever. You have a home and a family here."

Aerith's expression grew somewhat sad, the smile on her face more so. "I've already said goodbye to Mother, and this is the only way I can keep her safe. If she doesn't know where I am then Tseng will leave her alone in hope of waiting for me to return. At the very least, I don't think he'll harm her to get to me."

Crimson wanted to agree with her on that last part, but after what happened with the plate falling she couldn't. If ordered to, he would likely do so. "Okay, it's your choice."

"I don't think it'll be safe or…." Cloud trailed off when she gave him a hard stare, making it clear she wouldn't be deterred. "Just don't run off on your own or anything and stick to the rear line if we get into a battle."

Kunsel nodded, seemingly in approval. "I'll use the van I secured to get you to Kalm. After that, I'll dump it someplace in the opposite direction and disappear for a while. With any luck, they'll presume I was KIA when Sephiroth appeared and I can focus on gathering intelligence on Hojo and Sephiroth without any concern."

"Cosmo Canyon is on the way." Tifa pointed to the location on the map and then looked to Red XIII. "There's no reason for us to not be able to drop you off there before continuing on. Is that good enough?"

The sentient beast nodded. "It will suffice, yes. You have my thanks."

"If there's nothing else, we'll leave in five minutes." Crimson rolled up the map, its purpose fulfilled for the moment. She looked over her shoulder to see that Cloud and Tifa were talking, keeping their voices low as they did so. She didn't need to hear them to guess what it was about, but there was nothing she could do about it now.

Like Aerith had said, what was done was done.

[-oOo-]

Rufus settled into the office that was once his father's relatively comfortably. The office itself was fairly unscathed, unlike the majority of the building. The only signs that it had been intruded upon during the attack was the bloodstained chair from where his father had been skewered from behind and the door, which had been sliced in half. He had the door removed entirely, to be replaced later on, and a suitable replacement chair taken from Palmer's office.

At present, he paced back and forth in front of the window, glancing at a tablet to read up on his father's plans to this point. Tseng had graciously provided it before cooperating with the others in piecing together what transpired the throughout the day. There had, apparently, been a group of intruders within the building mere moments before the attack and he wanted to know everything about them.

His guard hound stirred from lounging on the floor and rose up to its feet before there was a knock on the metal frame where the door had once been. He looked over his shoulder to see it was Tseng. "Enter."

The leader of the Turks did so and stood at attention. "The Mayor has been detained for questioning in the cells, and your father's remains have been cremated, as ordered."

"Good," he said, in the same calm tone of voice as if he was talking about the weather. There was little that could change it, and his father's death didn't exactly merit. He took a seat at the desk. "Onto the next order of business then: The intruders."

"The intruders consisted for a former Turk, a member of the terrorist organization AVALANCHE, and an infantryman who was subjected to experimentation by Professor Hojo," he stated. "We've determined that they somehow managed to get the Mayor's identification card and used it to reach the laboratory, intercepting Professor Hojo to access it and then freeing both the Ancient and another test subject obtained from Cosmo Canyon years ago. They combated another monstrous sample and then escaped using the lift leading from the research department to the underground parking lot."

"A former Turk and a previous test subject of Hojo had a hand in this?" he asked, for confirmation. When Tseng nodded, he asked, "Regulation should have had them both eliminated to prevent this very thing from happening, so why weren't they?"

Tseng did not waver when asked. He outright confessed. "I allowed them to leave together some time ago, Sir."

"Explain," Rufus ordered. Tseng did so, detailing the events that led to up to Cissnei being terminated from her position due to helping them escape until now. Immediately after Tseng had finished his report, Rufus told him. "I'll overlook this."

After all, he himself had already vouched for the Turk's loyalty once before, when Scarlet wanted the others executed. Even if only to ensure that their gratitude would become something that he could use at a later date. Plus, Tseng was competent at his job and there was no way he could have known this would have happened.

"Thank you, Sir." He bowed his head slightly. "You have my word that I will remedy the situation as quickly as possible."

Rufus acknowledged it with a slight nod and then continued. "For the time being, I need to know if you believe they were working with Sephiroth to take the Ancient?"

They had managed to get the footage from the cameras in the office during the attack, witnessing Sephiroth telling his father how he wouldn't let them get the Promised Land. He wanted to dismiss his father's belief in such a thing as a fairy-tale that wasted money, but the fact that this happened lent some credibility to it. Whatever was there, he wanted it first and foremost, and they needed the girl who had been taken for that—the Ancient.

"I sincerely doubt that," Tseng said. "Sephiroth is responsible for the destruction of Nibelheim, which was where the terrorist and rouge infantryman hailed from. The latter was cited in Hojo's notes as being on-site at the time of Sephiroth's supposed death and had suffered from what looked to be impalement by the weapon he often carries. As absurd as it sounds, I believe that it was mere happenstance—Sephiroth likely got wind we obtained the Ancient and decided to act, while they mounted a rescue operation after the plate fall."

The plate fall was a blunder on his father's behalf, Rufus had to note. Those citizens were a still-viable source of revenue, not to mention the resources and manpower to rebuild the entire sector and plate would be costly. There were dozens of ways it could have been better handled, ranging from infiltration to subverting the local populace. Was he hoping this Promised Land could offset the costs entirely?

Not to mention it clearly didn't work, meaning it was a complete waste. "Both they and the company share a common enemy in this Sephiroth. Do you believe they can be used as an asset against him then?"

"Not willingly," Tseng stated. "Former agent Cissnei attempted to stop the operation earlier, citing moral issues, the Ancient was detained and lost her mother to Professor Hojo's experimentations and subsequent escape years ago, and the other two took part in bombing the reactors. The Anti-Shinra sentiment between them all is too great for willing collaboration."

"This could still work out in our favor," Rufus reasoned. "If they encounter him first then one or the other will be killed and we'll be down a problem. For now, your priority will be to find and retrieve the Ancient if she's still in the city, as well as locating Professor Hojo. His creations are the source of our current problems and he's been involved in too many things to be allowed to leave so easily."

"Understood," Tseng replied, just before departing.

[-oOo-]

Elmyra Gainsborough sat in a chair in her living room, tenderly holding a flower in her hand that her adoptive daughter had grown. She was gone now, having departed for parts unknown. Elmyra had no idea if or when she would see the little girl she had taken in again.

It was years ago when they met. She had gone to the train station to wait for her husband to come back from his leave. He had been drafted into the Wutai War by Shinra, and had left for the battlefield. She went to the train station, day after day, waiting for him to come home. But he never did.

One day, she came across a grim sight. There was a dying woman lying at the bottom of the platform stairs. Aerith had been seven at the time, begging for her mother to move as the guard phoned for a medical unit to arrive.

The woman kept urging and urging Aerith to run so that she could get away. But she wouldn't leave her mother's side as long as she lived. Elmyra could still recall what she said to her daughter that day.

"It will be fine," she said, reaching up to brush her child's hair. Her fingers were trembling, and it took all her effort just to do so. It was clear that she wouldn't survive more than a few more seconds, and she knew it. "I'll return to the Planet… and watch you grow into a wonderful woman… so don't cry."

The woman then turned to Elmyra, her labored breathing growing shallower and shallower. With her final breath, she begged for Elmyra to take Aerith somewhere safe. And then she died, right there and then.

Aerith was horrified and distraught, shaking her mother in disbelief. Her attempts to wake her were futile, and the child could no longer hold in her tears. She clung to Elmyra and cried her eyes out.

Seeing the child so broken, Elmyra couldn't help but embrace her in an effort to comfort her. Taking a final look at her mother, Elmyra decided to honor her wish and took Aerith home with her. The loneliness of an empty house was lifted as the two became family, and her daughter slowly came into her gifts despite doing her best to hide it.

And now her home was empty once more. The little girl who brightened her life was gone now, off to fulfill whatever purpose that she had been given her gift for. Would she return one day? Or would she leave her behind like her husband did?

A knock on the door roused her from her thoughts. She walked over and opened it, only to see Tseng standing there with two Shinra Guards. She scowled at him. "You again."

"Wait here," he told the pair as he entered her home of his own accord and shut the door behind him. "Good Evening, Elmyra. Is Aerith here?"

She slapped him without a second thought, hard enough to leave his cheek reddened. If the slap had hurt him, he showed no indication. Not even a wince or look of anger.

"Was that really called for?" he asked in his usual, professional tone.

"You kidnapped her!" Elmyra said, her voice cracking with anger and sorrow. "After all the years you've known her, you kidnapped her and took her to the very people responsible for her birth-mother's death. How can you stand there and ask me where she is after that?"

"It was the only way to protect her," he claimed. "She was associating with known terrorists before they carried out the destruction of the support holding up the Sector 7 Plate. If we hadn't taken her into protective custody, her life would have likely been forfeit when the plate fell."

"That's a pretty little lie you're telling to justify what you've done." Elmyra huffed. "We both know the truth, don't we?"

"… I have no idea what you mean," he said. It was so smooth that she almost believed it. "Just tell me where she is. It's very important."

"She's not here," Elmyra told him. "She left hours ago."

He frowned. "Where?"

"She didn't tell me where." She walked back over to the chair and sat down. "You've known her for a few years now. You can tell exactly why she did so."

Tseng sighed, no doubt able to piece together the scenario, and then set his card on the table. "If she makes contact with you again, notify me. A very dangerous man is after her, and we have a vested interest in her safety. That has always been my…the company's priority."

Her eyes fell upon the flower her adoptive-daughter had given her. "Just get out."

He did so without another word.

[-oOo-]

On the outskirts of the sleepy town of Kalm, the van came to a stop just off the road and the party poured out of it eagerly after the bumpy ride they had taken getting there. The wastelands around Midgar seemed to stretch forever, made worse by the fact they got attacked often by malfunctioning war machines left behind to roam the grounds. It was a pain to deal with them and keep the van safe, but they succeeded.

Also, to their surprise, the materia that they had taken from the laboratory seemingly recorded the attack used against them… somehow. It was still a bit of a mystery how but, given where they found it, the group chalked it up to being a part of Hojo's experimentations. He was an expert in this field, even if he was also insane and amoral.

"Well, I'm going to leave you guys here," Kunsel told Crimson, who was seated across from him in the front of the van. "You've got my PHS number if you want to contact me for anything, right?"

"Yeah." She unbuckled her seatbelt and sighed. "Thanks for doing all of this for us, again. I'm not lying when I say it wouldn't have gone as smoothly as it did without you."

"No problem," he said, flashing the former Turk a small smile as she climbed out and shut the door. "Good luck on your end of things."

"I think we'll manage with or without luck, if we're careful," she said. "Just take care of yourself. And, if we cross paths wherever you slink off to, I'll buy a drink or something."

A slight chuckle left his mouth. "Will do."

Crimson watched as he drove off into the distance. Once he was gone, she turned to the others. "Okay, we made good time but the hard part starts here. Let's reserve rooms at the Inn and then go shopping for supplies before we move on. Is there anything in specific anyone needs?"

"I'll need to pick up a weapon," Aerith said, holding up the makeshift staff that Tifa had ripped free from a wall. "This doesn't channel my magic as well as I'd like."

Cloud looked at the Buster Sword for a moment and decided, "I'll get a new sword too."

"You sure?" Crimson asked. "If you really want one I won't stop you, but it's okay to use it."

"No," he said. "I'll keep it, but it's not mine to use. Not really."

Crimson wanted to say something more, but there wasn't anything she could at this point. They'd already talked about everything, and it made sense that he'd want to distance himself after learning the truth. She couldn't blame him. "Okay."

"That means you can come with me," Aerith said, taking it upon herself to wrap her arm around his and then pull him forward. "We'll meet you all at the Inn!"

Crimson watched the pair leave, with the swordsman insisting he could walk alone and the healer playfully claiming that the way they were doing it was the proper etiquette. She shook her head and turned to the other two. "Let's go and make the reservations."