Another chapter is here!

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Cait Sith hummed to itself as it tapped at the control panel within the room of the Junon headquarters, accessing the files within it and transferring them. This particular model was designed for infiltration and it had lived up to its purpose well. After shrinking small enough to enter through the ventilation grate, it had put all the operators asleep courtesy of the materias held within its fluffy body to use when needed. From there, disabling the cannon hadn't been much trouble at all.

The window and cameras outside of the building were all frozen over, so it couldn't see what was happening. But as an extension of its owner, Reeve Tuesti, it was aware of what he was. And both sides had just called in to report they'd accomplished their tasks and were heading to the extraction location with their stolen submarine and the airship.

The battering at the door grew louder as the troops outside tried to get it down with a ram. Cait Sith estimated it would be a minute or so before they managed to get through. It finished up its task before making its way back into the ventilation shaft and slipping into again right before they succeeded.

Shinra troops burst in through the door, their weapons raised as they scanned the perimeter to search for any hostiles. As well-hidden as Cait Sith was, it wouldn't be spotted. They considered the room clear after a few more seconds and then checked the pulses of all those it had knocked out. Once they had confirmed they were all alive, they began sending word of what happened through their radios.

Cait Sith then began to crawl throughout the network of shafts. Its soft body made virtually no noise as it did so, allowing it to reach the office where Rufus was stationed. The man was staring at the window in the office, a large sheet of ice that reflected the scowl on his face, when the door to his office opened and a red-haired man in a sharply-dressed suit entered the room.

"What's the extent of the damage?" he asked without turning around.

"All of the employees and guards initially in the Underwater Reactor were killed and the security cameras were systematically taken out before the assault. The reactor wasn't damaged, but we've found the remnants of a device there and one of the submarines has gone missing. It was likely stolen along with the airship. In the water there was also a person wearing a uniform akin to those seen in the footage during the Coup of Midgar. He resisted capture and killed seven troops, but we managed to put him down."

Rufus turned to face Reno. "So this was part of an infiltration attempt by Heidegger then?"

Reno nodded. "I came up with the same conclusion, so I took the initiative to bring a photo of the device to our prisoner. Scarlet has confirmed what the device was supposed to do. It's a weapon of mass destruction designed to pull mako from the surroundings and then crystallize it using a Huge Materia."

"One of the Huge Materia they stole no doubt. Where is it now?"

"It was missing. Taking that into account and considering the bomb was defused, I'm assuming that Cissnei's group was involved as well. That would also explain the ice—keeping us all locked away while they interfered."

"Hmph. So even they managed to get into our base, right under our noses." Rufus expression grew tighter and he balled his fists. "Increase security and make sure this doesn't happen again. I don't know what their intentions were, but I will not suffer this humiliation again."

"Already on it," Reno said. "We'll have the building secured within the hour. However, there's one more matter to discuss. I don't know if it's relevant to this incident, but thirty minutes ago one of the locations we had under observation, after the disturbance from the locals
and an attempt on the warehouse, was… destroyed."

"Was it Heidegger's doing?"

"I can't confirm that, but it's not just the warehouse. The entire town has been destroyed, set aflame, and there are no signs of life at all to be found. Word will ripple out eventually and the people will likely believe it to be done by our hands."

Rufus stood quiet in thought for a moment before sighing. "We can't afford to send men to check with the losses we sustained to this point. Dealing with the fallout and investigation of that can come after we've dealt with Heidegger. Just have the other locations locked down for now."

"Understood," Reno said, before turning to leave the office.

Within the vent, Cait Sith continued to listen and think. The other doll within Midgar was situated in a position where it could easily pick up on Heidegger barking orders and throwing a fit at his latest failure. But he hadn't made any outright attacks towards civilian targets like that. Something else had to be going on.

The question was what that something was. Hopefully it could listen in a bit longer and get a clue from the files it transferred before they discovered its presence eventually. But for now, it settled in deeper within the ventilation system to avoid immediate detection.

[-oOo-]

Crimson's eyes ran over the interior of the airship that her party boarded after the two groups met back up.

She'd heard from the others how the battle had gone, but she just had to see it for herself after looking at the deck and how it had been devastated by the fight that had taken place up there. The charred metal and puddles of water mixed with a tinge of blood from the corpses that had been returned to the Planet gave her enough understanding of how ferocious the battle actually was. It was a miracle that the fighting didn't send the whole airship crashing down to the sea in the process.

The airship shook slightly and only compounded her doubts. But she forced it down. Cid had vouched that the airship was still capable of flight, and since he apparently designed and named it, she was willing to place her trust in that.

After she had seen all that she had to, she still loitered in the room and pretended to keep looking over the machinery. It was a distraction, a way to pass the time without getting in anyone's way after she'd heard all she needed to from them while Cloud was being treated for his injuries, suffered during the fight with Rosso. He'd been pierced by her blade through his stomach and out his back.

In the aftermath, they had used a Restore Materia to stop him from running the risk of bleeding out. But the injury was still deep enough that Aerith needed to tend to the injury personally. Though Crimson hated to ask that of her when she'd already exhausted herself getting them there and then holding the line, she was the only one who could heal an injury that deep adequately. So they were in the Operation Room while she did so, leaving the rest of them to go about their business.

Staying here worrying won't do anything, she decided after another minute passed. Rather than waiting to hear anything, she started walking towards the entrance to the deck. That would be where the other troublesome passenger was.

"Ughhh…" Yuffie groaned from a corner of the deck. It was away from the bent railing, on a solid section that allowed her to splay her body freely as she covered her eyes with her arm. It seemed that her motion sickness was back with a vengeance.

Crimson crouched down next to her and asked, "How are you feeling?"

"I've been better." She raised her arm enough to see out of one eye. "Shouldn't you be checking on Cloud?"

"He's with Aerith," Crimson said. "He'll be fine. I can trust her with him."

"Mm-hmm…" Silence lingered as they just sat there, watching the clouds pass in the night air, until Yuffie finally asked, "When did you find out you liked him?"

"A while ago," she admitted. "It took Kunsel calling me out and Aerith talking to me before I could admit. But I've been hesitating to act on it because of things like what happened here and now. I was worried it would affect my judgment, which is unacceptable when we could be killed if we're careless doing what we are now."

"Mmm… yeah, I can kind of see why you'd think that. If you watched someone you liked that way get hurt, you'd just want to make sure the person who did it suffer."

Crimson nodded once. "And then you have to deal with the feeling of losing someone because of a decision you made. It's heavy."

"Well, since you two were hugging, I'm guessing he feels the same and you sorted it all out?" Yuffie asked.

"Yeah… I guess so," Crimson said before the groan of the door hinges caught her ears. She turned towards the entrance to see that Aerith was there. Rising to her feet, she asked, "How is he?"

The last of the Cetra looked tired, though she kept a slight smile on her face as she came over to their side. "Cloud's fine now. I also checked on everyone else, including Shelke, and they're all okay. Cid also mentioned that we'd be near the coordinates that Reeve sent to us within the hour."

"That's a weight off my shoulders. I'll go check on Cloud now then." Crimson turned to Yuffie. "Listen, about what we said here—"

"Ugh…I know… I know." Yuffie waved the former Turk off in a dismissive manner. "Don't blab about it to the others because it might cause problems. I got it."

"That and when we land I'll see about looking for anything that can help with your motion sickness." It'd be cruel to just leave her sick all the time when they were on a boat or on the airship. Leaving those two on the deck, Crimson walked down the stairs and towards to the Operation Room.

Cloud was there, sitting on the edge of the table. "How you holding up?"

"That's what I should be asking you," she said, shutting the door. She made sure to lock it this time too. No more interruptions. "That could have gone so much worse if her blade managed to land higher or Lockhart had been a second slower."

"I had the best chance of taking her on without being killed," Cloud said simply. "Even then it was a tough fight, but we managed to put her down. She can't hurt anyone else."

"I know you made the right call." Crimson sighed, letting her body relax before she approached him. "I knew that it would likely end up that way when we split up the groups. But it was still too close after we just lost Kunsel and that talk we had before."

"I know, Crimson." Cloud straightened up and then set his hands on her shoulders. "I get why you feel that way. That's why I said what I did when I did. So that I wouldn't have any regrets. So, you shouldn't either if it comes to that."

"…That doesn't make it any easier," Crimson said softly as she set her head against his chest and wrapped her arms around his back. "But I understand."

"Good." Cloud returned her embrace, pulling her closer to his body. Close enough to where she could hear his heart beating. It was a steadily rising drum.

After what felt like an eternity, Crimson gently pulled herself free of his arms. Her own heart was racing now. She took a moment to compose herself and then asked, "Does this mean we're in a relationship now?"

"I guess?" When Cloud saw her eyes rise at how uncertain he sounded, he raised his arms in advance to pacify her. "I don't have all that much experience with this sort of thing, Crimson. The closest thing I've had to a date was at the Golden Saucer. And that ended up being cut short. Speaking of which—"

Crimson preempted him. "I locked it this time, though I left my phone on in case something happens. Given our luck though, that'll be soon. So we'll have to take advantage of every free minute we get if we're going to make this work."

"Well, everyone's okay now and we'll be at our stop in an hour." He pulled her closer again, treating her as gently as one would glasswork in the process. "So I guess this would count as free time, wouldn't it?"

"I guess so…" Looking into his eyes, she felt a blush forming on her face as heat gathered there with the blood pounding at her ears. It felt strange that Cloud was the one taking the lead here, but she supposed that it was because he had become sure of himself now. So she swallowed her hesitation, closed her eyes, and set her lips against his.

This time, Cloud pressed back into the kiss.

[-oOo-]

"Uhhh…"On the deck of the airship, Yuffie continued to feel miserable. She rolled around to face Aerith, who was staring at her concerned. "You don't have any magic that would be able to cure this, do you?"

The last of the Cetra was apologetic as she shook her head. "I'm afraid not on the top of my head. And searching through my ancestors' memories for something that vague will take a long time."

"I'll just have to deal with it then," Yuffie said bitterly, turning her eyes towards the entrance to the airship. "You think they're kissing down there?"

"I wouldn't be surprised." Aerith tilted her head in curiosity. "You're not envious, are you?"

"A bit, I guess." She shrugged. "Crimson said we were alike in a lot of ways in Wutai, so I can't help but be when she gets to be with someone she likes."

Aerith's eyes softened in understanding. "You really do like Vincent that much, don't you?"

Yuffie shot up at the surprising statement. She regretted it immediately as it made her motion sickness worse and spent a few seconds vomiting, with Aerith patting her back. Once she'd coughed it all out, she asked. "Did you gain the ability to read minds in that Temple or
something?"

Aerith took the accusation surprisingly well. "Not at all. I just paid attention to how you've been around him lately and remember what you said about liking the brooding-type in Costa del Sol. It's pretty clear that you care a lot about him. The others probably realize something as well considering you tend to go to an extreme when he's hurt, but I doubt any of them could really understand how to broach the topic so they aren't saying anything."

Yuffie gave her a skeptical look. "And you do?"

She tapped her head in response. "Having access to my ancestors' memories also provides me with many different perspectives and insights. Though it was a different time for them, some things never change. So you can get it off your chest with me and not worry about it."

A low growl left the younger girl's mouth as she mulled the offer over. Then she huffed in surrender. "… I know it probably seems like just a stupid crush, and he's like five times my age, but I can't help but feel something there."

"That's not a bad thing," Aerith said. "If you've someone you feel that strongly for then that's something to be glad for given the toll of everything we do. At the same time, Vincent is a man who feels much sorrow and guilt. I can't say that he'd respond positively to how you feel, even if the circumstances were better."

"Yeah, I figured as much." That was why she hadn't intended on saying anything about it and didn't plan to. This wasn't like what she told Cid and Shera, being honest here would just make thing awkward. If she could help him find peace that would be good enough and that meant getting that stolen Protomateria back.

Aerith set a hand on her shoulder. "As long as you feel that you can handle what comes afterwards, good or bad, follow whatever feeling makes you happy. Whether it's pursuing Vincent or that nice boy in Wutai. You like him too, right?"

"Yuri and I aren't like that. We're—" Again, the words 'Best Friend' came to mind and was met with a warm feeling that distinctly had more depth to it than that when she recalled his handsome face. She shook her head vigorously and quickly changed topics before she could think on it further. "Since you brought up that talk we had in Costa del Sol before, what about you?"

Aerith's smile turned sad. "If we're speaking romantic love, then I'm afraid that my heart still belongs to Zack. My duties as a Cetra will involve having a child to carry on our legacy at some point, but as for having someone who can replace him… I'm not sure if that's possible right now. Maybe in the future I will find someone who can make me feel like how he did, but he'll still hold a place in my heart even then."

And now she felt bad for bringing it up. It looked like she still hadn't completely gotten the hang of thinking before she reacted. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean anything by it. It's just been a long night."

"You didn't say anything wrong." She turned her eyes towards the night sky. "Back to Vincent, I was thinking on learning more about how the Protomateria got inside of him and about Chaos by trying to find where they located it the first time. There may be something there of use to us."

"That sounds like a good idea." It certainly couldn't hurt, right? "I'll come with you if you do find the place, but first I need to pick up a new weapon from home. All I have is Yuri's dagger after that brat melted my last one, and I don't want to break it like the others considering it's important to him."

Aerith held her hand to her chin in thought for a moment upon hearing that. "…Now that I think about it, I believe Barret was talking to Cid about getting their weapons replaced as well. The fighting is rather hard on our equipment, so I suspect they'll ask Reeve for his help on the matter. Couldn't you ask him as well?"

"I suppose I could, but I'd like something Wutai-made if possible," Yuffie said. Then she recalled the submarine and what was in it. "That reminds me that we found a spare spear down in the submarine we stole, along with a scale of some kind that reminded me of Lord Leviathan for some reason. I figured since Shinra weren't going to use them anymore I'd take them home, but if Cid needs the spear then he can have it."

"I'll bring it up when we land," Aerith said with a slightly wry smile. "He might even overlook the fact that you vomited on his airship for it."

Yuffie rolled her eyes. "It's not like he wasn't going to have to replace a good portion of the deck and interior anyway. I just hope we land soon…"