Author's Note: more canon breaking, because i wanted Yuffie to go into seventh heaven
also heads up, because, i uh, well …
Look, it feels like everyone and their mother has done the corneo bride auction when they do their rewrite of OG and now Remake
don't get me wrong, i enjoyed the og, loved the changes to it in remake, but at the same time rehashing that part of the game swiftly became a chore of typing up the exact same dialogue i have read a hundred times and this is meant to be fun for me to write (and there's only so many times i can watch corneo … and listening to him … ugh.)

Twisted Stage

Urban Development Executive Office, 63rd Floor, ShinRa Tower

Reeve had a headache. The reason for the headache was either from staring at the screens or a lack of caffeine (or because he had Cait running for so long) and unfortunately, neither one meant he could stop.

He couldn't get rid of the laser turrets in mako storage, not without going against Heidegger. Who was currently making his life miserable because he hadn't released Reactor One so Reeve could see the damage and begin repairs.

There was also a Soldier causing trouble on the roads again, and it was very telling that when he called Kunsel to see what could be done about it, Kunsel groaned in exasperation.

"Soldier 3rd Class Roche. He'd have been promoted to first if he wasn't such a hazard. Heidegger called him in from monster hunting in the wastes and none of us can get him to listen." Kunsel sighed. "He gets bored if he doesn't have something to fight and then he starts doing motorcycle tricks … I'm sorry sir."

"It's fine, thank you for explaining."

Reeve moved onto his next point of interest, trying to get funding for fixing the reactor. He could do a vanity project, but that was no guarantee, as it was, most of his funds were in the expressway project.

By this time, Cait had gotten to the archives, which hopefully had more details on Neo Midgar and why Heidegger thought that pipe dream was close to being a reality.

Only, Cait had paused and there was a dizzying moment of Reeve looking at himself.

Apparently Mayor Domino had surveillance on him. And the other executives. Likely piggybacking off of the surveillance that Heidegger and the President had set up, like the Turks and Reeve himself did.

Wonderful, Reeve was going to have to set up something to get the Mayor's surveillance off him.

He'd thought he'd dealt with those cameras.

That would have to be dealt with later, right now, he needed to work on assessing damages and construction.

This would be another late night for him, and he was soon proved right as his secretary bullied him out of the office to go get something to eat. Cait was still waiting to access the archives but the mayor was obsessively watching footage of the executives still.

Unfortunately, Reeve's late dinner wasn't much of a break, because as he chewed and looked out on the city, something exploded in sector seven.

It took until morning for the security brief to be put together, and then they had to wait for the President to finish breakfast before they could have the meeting.

And Heidegger was far too jovial for someone whose security forces had taken a hit.

"A disturbance was reported in the train tunnels, mobile units were dispatched. They were unable to apprehend the culprits and Soldier 3rd Class Roche was also defeated. An hour later, the munitions storehouse on sector seven plate was attacked by Avalanche." Tseng listed the events.

"It wasn't just avalanche, we have evidence of a wutaian warrior and one of our former soldiers has apparently turned traitor!" Heidegger brought up a picture of a blond soldier with a large sword shielding someone holding a large shuriken.

"We have a name?"

"Cloud Strife, currently working as a mercenary monster hunter in the slums." Tseng explained, bringing up a company id photo next to the picture of the soldier.

"Not an issue then, probably degrading as we speak." Scarlet scoffed.

Reeve studied the two photos. The company id was a teenager at best.

"Any captures?"

"No, all attackers escaped."

Reeve wanted to sigh, this meeting was starting to feel like it could have been an email.

"Boss, we got a call, it's the guy that called the bomb threat." Reno announced, and Tseng did something to play the audio.

"Damnit ShinRa! You couldn't have waited for me to blow the damn reactor, you had to blow it yourselves?! Today another reactor will go, Reactor Five, I'm gonna do the crime you killed me for one way or another!" The click of the terminated call even sounded angry.

"What a strange person." Scarlett shrugged.

"Why on earth would he say we blew our own reactor?" Reeve was baffled.

"We had to blow it to get the Wutai agents inside." Heidegger waved it off. "Well now, I'll make sure we have security in place, might make a good show if we can get them live!"

"I'm sorry, what?" Reeve had thought the laser turrets had been accidentally set to high on that reactor, not purposely done. When all his question got was a laugh, Reeve pressed on. "We need to shut down the train stations to sectors four five and six and get troopers patrolling the maintenance tunnels."

"That won't be necessary! Those maintenance tunnels have so many monsters in them, it would be a waste of men!" Heidegger scoffed. "Don't step outside your department, leave Security to me!"

"Tuesti, stand down." The President cut off Reeve's retort. "Focus on your job."

"Then I'm shutting the trains down so we can repair all the tracks damaged by Third Class Roche and this Strife character." Reeve retorted. Crews were already working on them, and he'd planned to give the okay for one train to start running after this meeting.

"Fine. Do that after the meeting." The President waved a hand, a dismissal of the conversation.

Reeve would do that, and he would send Cait to the slums to find this Cloud Strife and see if he could be convinced to not attack the Reactor.

"Tseng? I want the Ancient in our custody within the next twenty four hours." The President turned to the Turk.

"Sir?"

"Heidegger and his team finished the audit of Veld's old files. You know exactly where she is. Bring her in, or the Turk department will be decommissioned."

"Understood Sir." Tseng agreed.

"Heidegger's troops will assist."

"Always ready, Gya ha ha!"

Medical Clinic, Sector Seven Slums

"Morning! What's for breakfast and think we can do some more work with Cloud?" Yuffie asked. "That and Fort Condor was fun."

"You really shouldn't hang around those mercenaries, they're working with the splinter cell." Nayo told her as she started scarfing the breakfast.

"At least they're doing something proactive against ShinRa." Yuffie pointed out.

"But we need Mako power, especially for the hospitals."

"Wutai doesn't use Mako and we're just fine." Yuffie informed her. "If ShinRa had their way, they'd poison our land with those stupid reactors."

"That's not, we can make those reactors safer." Nayo objected. "Too many people would die."

"My people are dying!" Yuffie retorted, standing up. "All because ShinRa decided they were going to build a reactor whether we wanted one or not and we definitely do not!"

The guys were all frozen, looking between the two.

"The splinter cell is dangerous, they don't care who gets hurt."

"And you apparently don't care if my people get killed as long as yours are safe." Yuffie snapped. Nayo looked like someone had slapped her.

"Oohkay, let's take a few breaths here." Zhijie moved between them. "We don't have to agree, alright?"

"Your HQ hit the same place the splinter cell did, you know, so apparently they're gearing up for a proper fight. You're not going to be able to hide from this fight forever!"

"Let's take a walk, Boss."

"Killing people isn't going to solve the situation either!" Nayo retorted as Yuffie was pulled away. "Zhijie!"

"Easy, Nayo." Whatever else was said got cut off by the door closing.

"This is ridiculous."

"We do have a mission to complete, Boss, we can't exactly keep going off if we want to stay on schedule."

"Hmph." She hadn't forgotten her mission to get the ultimate materia, but there had to be more they could do.

"You shouldn't have tagged along with Cloud last night."

"Tell me about it. That motorcycle ride was a nightmare, and Jessie apparently only had that summon." Yuffie pouted. She'd been so sure that Jessie had stronger materia if she was giving a summon as a down payment.

Though it had also been enlightening. The splinter cell hadn't known much about the ceasefire, thinking it mutual and not something forced on her people. And the fact Jessie's father was in a coma because no one got him out of mako for half a day … Yuffie didn't believe in souls, but she got that Jessie wanted to avenge her father by removing the reactors.

At least it made more sense than Nayo's 'We can reason with ShinRa and change the system' nonsense.

"I'm gonna find someone to play Fort Condor with." Yuffie decided.

"ShinRa Breaking News Alert! Due to an incident in the train tunnels, all trains have been suspended as the rails are checked. Please stand by for further details."

"Well, that makes things more difficult." Sonon grimaced. "Hopefully they're up and running by tonight."

Seventh Heaven, Sector Seven Undercity

Barrett was ready. Jessie had adjusted the bomb so it wouldn't cause as much damage to the surroundings as whatever ShinRa had done, Cloud was set to accompany them and Biggs had left early to clear a path.

Then they announced the trains were stopped.

That wasn't too bad as they had plans for that, though Jessie tripping down the stairs and twisting her leg was inconvenient, Tifa could step up and take her place.

Biggs showing back up at the bar while poisoned was nowhere in the plans.

"There were multiple nests, I ran out of ammo and antidotes. Sorry." Biggs apologized after taking an antidote. "Too many monsters in the service tunnels."

"Are you kidding me?" Barrett huffed. He was so close to getting his revenge and saving the planet … why did this keep happening?

"Well, they're not likely to bomb another of their reactors, right?" Tifa asked.

"… Don't look at me, I have no idea." Cloud admitted. "Security has even increased between the slum sectors. I saw that soldier from last night near the pillar."

"Damn!" Barrett snarled, before looking at Cloud. "You said 24 hours after a bomb threat for security to decrease, right?"

"If they stick to protocol, yeah."

"Then you go with Biggs early tomorrow morning to clear the monsters."

"Alright." Cloud nodded. "Might want to stock up on everything today, especially antidotes."

"Yeah." Biggs went to stand and Cloud pushed him back down.

"You and Jessie relax, I'm not carrying you if you collapse tomorrow." Cloud informed him.

"Sir yessir!" Jessie saluted with a grin, Biggs also grinned. "How's that girl doing, anyway? Mom didn't think she was eating enough."

"No idea, I'm not her keeper."

"She got weird about me saying the ceasefire meant the war was over. Guess they have a different view of things." Biggs noted.

"Given ShinRa just framed Wutai for Reactor One, she's not wrong." Cloud pointed out.

"Whatever, let's just get ready for tomorrow." Barrett instructed.

President's Office, 70th Floor, ShinRa tower

"Preparations are in place?" President ShinRa asked.

"In place. Seems the rats are just bluffing again." Heidegger announced. "Shall we start the second act?"

The President waved the hand holding the cigar.

Heidegger tapped a command.

In the Sector Five Reactor, the Airbuster activated and began to rampage.

"It appears Avalanche has sabotaged the Airbuster, what a tragedy! Gya ha ha!" Heidegger chuckled.

Seventh Heaven, Sector Seven Undercity

Barrett had calmed down to enjoy seeing Marlene's excitement at his greeting her when she came home for lunch.

"Daddy!" She hugged him.

"Hungry for lunch, peanut?" He chuckled.

"Yes! Where's Biggs?"

"Wedge took him home, he wasn't feeling well."

"You guys open?" Sonon asked.

"Of course!" Tifa greeted. "Who's your friend?"

"I'm Yuffie Kisaragi! Fearless agent of Wutai Interim Government!" The girl started dancing with materia. Barrett only caught part of it, but he had more pressing concerns.

"Wutai using kid soldiers now?!" Barrett demanded. She was a scrawny thing.

"Excuse me, I'm not a kid-" Yuffie did a double take at his arm.

"Right. Yuffie, meet Barrett Wallace, his daughter Marlene, and Tifa Lockheart." Sonon introduced. "Two specials, please?"

"Coming right up!" Tifa smiled.

"I'm not a kid!" Yuffie glared at him. "I'm gonna send ShinRa running!"

"Like that spirit but you look like someone who'd go down in one hit." Barrett informed her.

"I can fight!"

"Okay you two, let's eat. See, Marlene and Sonon are behaving." Tifa chided, bringing out food.

"Thank you, Tifa." Barrett recited. It was echoed by Sonon.

"Thank you!" Marlene glanced at Yuffie. "You're supposed to say thank you!"

"Mmph!" Yuffie paused with a mouth full of food. "What-?"

"Chew and swallow before you start talking!" Marlene corrected with a frown.

"My little girl's been learning manners lately, she's even started teaching me." Barrett explained proudly.

"Don't they have manners in Wutai?" Marlene asked.

"They do, though our way of saying thanks is eating everything that someone gives us. Not eating everything is rude." Sonon explained.

"Oh. That's okay then." Marlene nodded. "Still shouldn't talk with your mouth full."

"That's a manner thing we agree on." Sonon smiled.

"Hey!" Yuffie huffed. "Want a Dao Chao bean?"

"What's that?" Marlene asked.

"Snack from my home!"

"Oh! That's the thing Biggs couldn't figure out how to bite so he ended up swallowing it whole! Cloud said there was a way to do it without hurting your teeth." Marlene recognized it.

"Yeah, Wedge swallowed it whole as well." Yuffie noted.

"Which way did the eye go?" Marlene tested it before she got a loud crunch. "I did it!"

"Good job Marlene!" Yuffie cheered.

"Ouch, I did it wrong, hang on." Tifa also took a few tries. "Huh, this tastes familiar …"

"Ouch!" Barrett grimaced as pain shot through a tooth. He refrained from cursing around Marlene. He was pretty sure Yuffie was giving these out as a petty revenge prank.

"Miss Yuffie, may I please have a couple to give my friends?" Marlene asked.

"Sure! Have fun!" Yuffie grinned.

"Just make sure you warn them beforehand."

"Okay."

Marlene was picked up by Betty and her father after lunch and Barrett had finally fully relaxed about the mishaps.

"Breaking News Alert!" The tv blared, making Tifa almost drop a dish. "Avalanche has hijacked a prototype weapon and is attacking Reactor Five!" Which was right when the image of Reactor Five onscreen exploded.

"Say what?! We're here!" Barrett shouted. "They couldn't wait for us to bomb them, so they did it themselves?"

"Maybe it was a different cell?" Sonon asked.

"I can't believe they'd frame us for something we didn't do yet!"

"Does it count as a framing if it was something you were going to do?" Yuffie asked.

"Just once I'd like to do the damn crime I'm accused of!" Barrett gripped his gun arm.

"I get that." Yuffie said softly.

"So what does that mean for us?" Tifa gripped a glass so hard it broke.

"A special message from President ShinRa!" The news anchor announced.

"We will not let these attacks on Midgar go unanswered. Those among us who would threaten our way of life will not be tolerated." The President sat behind his desk. "Public Security Director Heidegger as well as our troopers and Soldiers, will not rest until the culprits are found and dealt with."

"You're the one that needs to be dealt with, damn leech." Barrett hissed. "Damn it."

"We'll have to think of something, it's like the bomb threats gave them ideas."

"We'll call a meeting. There are other reactors." Barrett was not letting them get away with this.

"Need any help?" Yuffie asked.

"Don't you have a mission?" Barrett asked.

"Uh, yeah, but kinda can't go without the trains."

Barrett paused at the realization he could probably help

"… C'mon, time for a quick midgar infrastructure navigation 101 with yours truly." Barrett waved them over to the secret elevator which made Yuffie gasp in delight.

There were bunks and multiple chalkboards and papers, which were mostly blueprints.

"Urban Development has a lot of the initial blue prints of the plate, the reactors and shinRa tower as public record. Outdated but useful."

"Whoa … wait, there are multiple elevators up to the plate?"

"They're old and heavily guarded." Barrett explained. "Except for one in Sector Six, but part of the upper plate collapsed on it."

"That can happen?!"

"Supposedly, only during construction." The lights flickered. "Anyway, the most important thing you need to know, is to follow the nose. We used ShinRa's own mascot against them." He pulled out a picture of Stamp. "There's Stamp graffiti that leads through all the old service tunnels ShinRa doesn't bother checking on. Find the graffiti and then follow the direction the nose points."

"Omigosh, and I bet ShinRa doesn't erase him cause he's the mascot, right?" Yuffie jumped for joy.

"Got it in one, most graffiti they'll paint over given time, but the Stamp stuff they keep up as long as it's cute looking." Barrett grinned, sharp. "Stamp's a good boy, can't help who his owner is."

"Why didn't Nayo mention this?"

"… Nayo's a nice girl, but she hates physical violence, prefers words. Probably doesn't want you moving some place you could do damage. Not like you got anyone around here you care about." Barrett pointed out. "Me, I got Marlene, all I want are the damn reactors to stop so she can get a future, but that won't happen as long as ShinRa exists."

"Right … there are families here."

"Some even descended from Wutai, lived here before ShinRa got their hooks into it." Barrett absently rubbed his arm. "I hate this place, I've made my peace with casualties, but I got limits to how many I'll cause."

"Yeah, I get that." Sonon sighed.

Yuffie seemed frozen, looking at one of Marlene's drawings.

Church, Sector Five Undercity

"I thought they weren't going?" Zack asked. Aerith could hear the worry in his voice.

"They're not. ShinRa did it again." Cloud followed Zack and Aerith to the church.

"You've got to be kidding me." Zack sighed. "Why are they doing this?"

"Don't worry so much. We'll get it figured out." Aerith assured him.

What was supposed to be a nice lunch at the church was interrupted by troopers and Reno.

"Do you two live here now?" Reno asked.

"They're my bodyguards." Aerith informed him.

"Right. Well, you gonna come with me?"

"No."

"That's the last time I can accept that answer-" Reno was cut off by the guns being cocked.

Aerith felt her breath catch. What did he mean this was the last time?

"You guys don't want this fight." Zack warned.

"Aerith get back." Cloud glanced at her. She nodded and retreated to the pulpit.

"Don't step on my flowers!" Aerith instructed.

The poor troopers didn't have a chance to get close to the flowers.

"Okay, that was just sad." Reno jumped down from where he had hid. "Let's see how you do against me!"

Aerith had to give Reno credit, he held out longer than the troopers, and managed to Stun Zack.

However, that ticked off Cloud, who managed to hit Reno hard enough to surprise him.

"Hah, you're good, quite a trooper." Reno probably shouldn't have stopped to taunt.

Because Zack shook off the stun.

Cloud and Zack hitting him at the exact same time had to hurt.

"This way!" Aerith lead them both to the back so they could leave. "Sorry Reno!"

Reno's phone started to ring as they left.

"Aerith …"

"Yeah, that sounded not good." Aerith bit her lip. "Hey, Zack, want to go on another date?"

"I did promise to show you a blue sky. We could probably expand the business outside midgar."

"… Yeah, we'll talk to mom about it … can we leave in the morning? Cloud, you should have a date with Tifa! Just in case."

"I'll ask." Cloud looked at them.

"Great! Another Double Date!"

Sector Six Undercity

Cait Sith wasn't one to question orders, but using the old service elevators to the slums was a bit awkward after the attack on the sector five reactor.

It creaked a terrible amount. Reeve added maintenance to the list.

Mog held a sign advertising the Gold Saucer, and within moments of arriving in Wall Market had a drink thrown at Mog.

At least at the saucer when that happened there were backups to change out, but Cait here only had one backup.

Fortune telling helped a little, and eventually people started ignoring him.

Just as Reeve was thinking about moving him to a different sector, Cait spotted familiar blond spiky hair.

"I'm glad you asked me out, Cloud." The girl with him wore a short blue dress while Cloud wore a blue suit that matched. "I needed this."

"I uh, I glad I asked too." Cloud immediately covered his face with one hand upon realizing he misspoke.

"You're always so professional, it's nice seeing you relax." His date teased, grabbing his hand. "C'mon! We might not get another chance."

"Yeah." He followed her into the Honeybee inn.

Behind the two, two girls followed, one in armor the other in a moogle costume, only to be blocked from their spying by the Inn's requiring a ticket and one of the girls being underaged.

"Ugh, come on! I want to watch Cloud's date. Who asks a girl out by giving her fighting gloves?!"

"We don't allow spying on our guests. And we have a dress code." The bouncer informed them.

"Hey!"

"Well now Lassie, I think you're impeccably dressed!" Cait piped up.

"Huh?" The two looked at him. Behind them the Bouncer admitted a guy with black spiky hair and a lady in red.

"Cait Sith the name, Fortune's the game! Allow me the honor of reading the fortunes of two lovely ladies as yourselves! For the lass with impeccable moogle tastes!" He danced as Mog hummed an printed out a fortune.

"Beware of news too good to be true, Your real friends will be there for you. Lucky Color: Red." She tilted her head. "Too good to be true?"

"And for you Lass!" Cait started another dance.

"When one door closes, another opens, so don't stare at the closed door. Lucky Color Yellow." She looked at him. "Hmm, that could mean a lot of things, wait, Cait?!"

"Know me from the saucer Lassie? We haven't backed up the me at the saucer lately."

"I'm Jessie. Jessie Rasberry."

"Goddess! What are ye doing here?"

"My dad had an accident. He's not … They don't think he'll wake up."

"Oh Lassie, I'm sorry to hear that." Cait managed.

"Not your fault Cait, ShinRa left him for half a day soaking in Mako. All those safety procedures he told me about, and apparently his partner couldn't bother to check the camera or his radio."

Reeve was immediately looking that information up.

To be honest, Reeve couldn't exactly blame her for hating the company or joining a group against the company as he found the necessary incident report. Gross negligence had caused the accident, and even the amount the company was paying for the care was just barely enough, especially as it had required Mrs. Raspberry to sign a waiver promising not to say anything or the funds would be cut.

"I cannae do anything about that lass, other than look Cute so you'll be distracted a bit. Nya!" He posed for her.

"Thanks." She giggled, though sobered as a group of men approached.

Daily Buzz Evening Edition

A Mysterious Explosion in the slums! by Damon

Not even hours after the explosion at reactor Five another explosion has occurred. The Infamous Wall Market, home to scum and villainy that decent society scorns was rocked by an explosion at the Former Wutai Embassy, now known as the Home of Don Corneo, the slum lord who traffics human women and monsters.

There are conflicting theories as to who committed this brazen crime, the Angel of the Slums, Wutaian immigrants who want their embassy back or even ShinRa itself punishing the Don for working with those who attacked our Reactors!

Whatever the case, this Reporter is on the story!

end note: a nice date night for our couples that is well deserved and is only briefly interupted by corneo's house exploding. which he deserves. (actually he deserves worse, and i can't wait for the day we get to see his pet eat him. or we set him on fire.)

especially with the next twenty four hours becoming, well, the end of the midgar section.

I LIKE NAYO! however, i do think she's an idealist who thinks that all people have to do is tell the truth and the people in ShinRa will see reason.

if she had been born twenty years before the game, this approach might've been viable, but now ShinRa has moved from acts of war and war crimes to mass murder of civilians that they're supposed to protect (Corel being the obvious example) and the only decent director who would listen is Reeve, who currently is understaffed and underfunded.

that said, not everyone has to fight on the front lines, and given her visible terror in rebirth at the attack on Shinra tower, I've decided that Nayo's gonna learn to be a proper support character in this story. (her and Zhijie are my favorites of the avalanche cell that we meet in integrade)

Now, Veld's files containing Aerith's location … I don't know why suddenly Tseng and Reno inform Aerith that she essentially can no longer say no to them.

But I can imagine that Veld, at his darkest moments as he's living with the information that his wife and little girl are dead and all he has is the ShinRa Company and his Turks, would be a hundred percent willing to give Aerith to Science if it meant protecting Tseng and his Turks. he would also not inform Tseng as Tseng might have objected.

And Heidegger is absolutely the kind of creep to go through someone's dirty laundry to save his own skin. the president gave him control of the turks, heidegger is gonna make sure the turks are either useful or dead.

This is my interpretation, but the folks at the Realm in the Dark Discord have been helping me a lot

Next up: The final act of ShinRa's great frame up, and Aerith's capture, with only slightly less death for the characters we love.