Zack and Sephiroth had been called off their search by Reno, who arrived together with Rude a few minutes after they started to let them know that their priority had shifted away from finding Reeve to tracking down Tseng and the vice president, the two of whom had apparently left their position without notifying anyone, and it could not be ruled out that Reeve's disappearance was just a distraction to draw everyone away from the true target, the vice president. Much to Zack's dismay, who understood that, naturally, the vice president enjoyed higher priority than the head of urban development, but still would rather see Reeve being safe and secure than Rufus Shinra, if given the choice between the two of them. A glimmer of hope was that it was not unlikely that whoever was responsible for one's disappearance may have had a hand in the other's as well, and they would all be found together.
While Tseng did not respond to phone calls, the Turks' phones were fortunately equipped with tracking probes that allowed other Turks to pinpoint their approximate location in real time, provided that they were in a place where tracking was possible. Reno led them beyond the walls of the palace, deep into the maze of side streets that made up most of the Wutaian capital. Aurum and Argentum of the Crescent Unit were still shadowing them from the rooftops, although they were keeping a larger distance, now that they were out of the palace, and Zack was debating with himself if they were there to help them against whoever the perpetrators were, or to help perpetrators deal with them upon confrontation. Needless to say, with Sephiroth there, no fighter in Wutai would hold a candle against them, which put Zack's worries to rest somewhat.
After fifteen minutes of meandering through the city, they ended up in a cul-de-sac, where Reno called out to the group: "Hey, they stopped! And they are very close." He looked around, as if he was looking for a sign of them being nearby. "Underground?", Rude suggested, as nothing particularly helpful stood out to them. Reno looked at him and nodded in acknowledgement before he dropped down and pressed his ear on the ground. Zack folded his arms at the strange scene. As if he would hear anything through the solid rock and earth. A snicker coming from the rooftop of one of the nearby houses told him that he was not alone in thinking that.
"Anything?", Rude inquired after Reno did not stir for a few seconds. "Gunshots", Reno responded warily. He pushed himself up from the ground and turned his face up toward the rooftop where Aurum and Argentum were standing. Reno demanded while pointing at the ground to his feet: "Hey, numbskulls! You know how to get down there, don't you? How about you make yourselves useful?", and Rude added: "…for once?", The two Crescent soldiers exchanged glances and shrugged. "Sorry, that's a secret!", Aurum shot back, and Argentum added: "As if we'd tell Shinra." Reno ran his hand through his hair repeatedly in visible distress, but Sephiroth stepped in by turning toward their opponents and pulled his sword from its sheath by a few inches. "You're getting soft", he said to Reno. Zack caught his drift, put his hand on his own sword's handle on his back without drawing it, and added: "Just say the word." Beside him, Cloud readied his rifle with his lips tightly pressed together. Zack did not like the idea of having to protect him if a fight were to break out, but there was no time to send him away to safety.
"Yo, stop!", Reno yelled. "These fucks are just trying to waste our time or to provoke you to jeopardize everything we've been working for." Rude scratched his head and added: "Keep your swords down." The redhead bit his fingernail and looked around again. "There has to be an entrance somewhere. Yo, let's search the houses."
"Hey, whoa!", Argentum protested from the rooftop. "That's illegal!" Shifting her weight to one leg, Aurum folded her arms. "If you try that, we'll have to stop you." Sephiroth drew his sword a few more inches out of its sheath. "You and what army?" The noise of some commotion drew Zack's attention to the entrance of the cul-de-sac. With his hand still on the handle of his sword, Zack turned his head to see several warriors of the crescent unit appearing in the alley, followed by some of the Wutaian lords and their guards and, quite unexpectedly, Lord Godo himself, who was armed with a long sword and not quite the stone statue he had been all day.
"That army, perhaps?", Aurum commented on the arrival. Sephiroth fully drew his sword, dropped the sheath on the ground and turned toward the newcomers, his sword raised high beside his shoulder. Zack stepped next to him and drew his sword. "I will not allow such aggression in my city", Godo Kisaragi exclaimed after the two groups continued to stare at each other for a few seconds. Behind Zack, Rude began: "We just-", and was immediately interrupted by Reno, who groaned loudly: "We just want our vice president back. Bonus points for Reeve and the vice chief. If you won't help us…" – "… we'll do whatever it takes", Rude finished the sentence.
Before anyone could move, the window frame of one of the houses broke with a crash and a small black creature fell on the ground between the two parties. "Owie…", it whined as it scrambled to its feet. "I really need to figure out how to reliably land on my feet. Maybe I need an additional sensor…?" Suddenly, everyone's eyes were on the small thing, which had four legs, black fur, a red cape, socks and a crown between its large pointy ears, which made it vaguely resemble a cat, but not quite so. The cat looked from one left to right, from one party to the other and suddenly jumped up, shrieking: "This is bad! Come quickly!"
It ran back to the house, jumped up and grabbed the ledge of the window to pull itself up and vanish back inside. A short moment later, the door of the house slid open. "Did we make it?", a soft voice came from the inside. "Barely, Mr. Vice President. Everyone's seems to be alive, but it doesn't look good…", a deep voice responded. Rufus Shinra and Reeve stepped out the door, carrying an unconscious and bloody Tseng in between the two of them with his arms over each of their shoulders. "Mr. Vice President!", Reno exclaimed as he stepped to Rufus' side and drew his nightstick. "Are you injured?", he asked anxiously. Rufus Shinra's all-white outfit, his face and hair were full of fresh blood, but he shook his head. "It's all his", he explained and nodded at Tseng. Beside Zack, Sephiroth immediately cast a Curaga spell on the Turk before turning his attention back on the Wutaian forces, his eyes going back and forth between the Crescent elites on the roof and the group of armed lords with their guards on the ground.
"What now?", Rude broke the silence. But the chaos would not be complete without a third party and a natural disaster to join the fray, and so a small voice yelled from a rooftop: "Leviathan! Vanquish the foes of Wutai!", and all hell broke loose as a gigantic blue and purple snake materialized on the near mountainside amidst a flood wave of a scale Zack had never seen before. The snake uncurled in apparent slow motion and started moving toward the city, the water rolling down the mountain behind it.
Sephiroth whirled around swiftly, his sword pointed at the young black-haired girl on the roof with a bandana around her head, black shorts and a green shirt, holding a glowing red materia in her hand, raised far over her head. A girl Zack knew all too well. "Is that one of us?", Sephiroth asked towards no one in particular. Rufus, with his pinched eyes turned to the girl, slowly answered: "No…" With his superhuman speed, Sephiroth leapt high into the air and let several sword slashes fly toward the little girl, who stood frozen and stared at the flying steel coming toward her like a leapbunny in headlights. "Stop! Sephiroth!", Zack cried out, but when the addressed paid no attention to him, Zack activated his dash materia and sped toward the girl, yelling: "No! Yuffie!"
He reached her just before the first sword slash did, put his arm around her waist and picked her up effortlessly. He raised his sword to deflect the slash, but the impact broke it in two with a loud "clang". The strike hit the roof below him and instantly split the house, but before the next slash could reach him, he jumped out of the way, but the blast wave caught him in mid-air, hurling him to the ground. Protecting Yuffie with his own body, he slid over the ground until his back hit the wall of another house with such a force that it drove the air out of his lungs and left him breathless.
Light-headed from the ordeal as he was, he vaguely noticed several houses on the opposite side of the alley collapsing with loud crashing and clamoring, and a squeaky voice crying "Shiva!". A sharp pain between his ribs roused him from his daze as Yuffie pulled herself free, snatched the Dash materia from his armguard and bolted off at extraordinary speed. Pressing his hand on his injured side, Zack forced his eyes to open to see Rufus pointing at her and commanding: "Don't let her get away!" Reno shot a taser at her and triggered it upon impact, causing her to stumble to the ground, her legs paralyzed. Rude sped toward her, threw her over his shoulder and dashed back toward the group.
Zack scrambled to his knees as Sephiroth landed beside him, light-footed as he was, and cast a curaga to heal the wound inflicted by Yuffie's kunai. "How long are you planning to sit there?", he asked impatiently and pulled him to his feet. "This isn't over", he commented the chaotic scene in front of them. On the mountainside, the flood wave had rolled down the slope considerably and consumed several rows of houses before it was frozen and stopped by the ice queen Shiva. "The esper disappears, but the destruction is real", Sephiroth explained as the frozen tide slowly disintegrated into a shiny dust that was carried off with the wind, revealing the broken and collapsed remains of the crushed houses in its wake.
Sephiroth walked the few steps back to the rest of the group and positioned himself between them and the Wutaian forces, his sword raised high, ready to continue the fight. Cloud, who had merely been watching the whole time, stepped to his side, the mouth of his gun pointed the same way. As they did so, Rufus Shinra let go of Tseng's arm, leaving him to be carried by Reeve, and stepped next to Rude. "Yuffie, is it?" He bowed down to her and lifted her face with his bloodied hand. "Pleased to make your acquaintance", he hissed into her ear as he snatched the red Leviathan materia from her hand and turned toward the Wutaian forces. Yuffie howled and struggled to free herself in response to the mistreatment, but Rude held her too tightly, not the least bit impressed by her beating and biting.
"Kisaragi!", Rufus Shinra called over toward them in a mocking tone. "Did you lose something?" Zack could see the lord take a single step forward and clench his fist. "An ancient deity, perhaps? How sad…" Godo waved his hand in their direction and commanded: "What are you waiting for? Apprehend them!" The assembled soldiers, including Aurum and Argentum who had joined them, raised their weapons. "Sephiroth!" Rufus called out to him. "Hold on to that for me", he directed and tossed the materia to him. The silver SOLDIER caught it without effort and inserted it into a materia slot on his belt, which caused the opposing party to freeze. Sephiroth holding such a powerful materia noticeably escalated the situation. While it was incomprehensible to Zack how a little girl like Yuffie could summon something so big, he had a pretty good idea about the extent of Sephiroth's power, and that a flood wave that destroyed a dozen houses was nothing compared to what Sephiroth would be able to do with that materia.
Lord Godo, however, was unfazed by the change of situation, and repeated his command: "Apprehend them now!" However, he had not expected Rufus Shinra's ruthlessness, who casually lifted his rifle and pointed it at Yuffie's head. "Kisaragi! Did you lose something else, by any chance?" Zack drew Angeal's sword that was still on his back and yelled: "Yuffie!" Before he could reach her, Reno stepped in between him and the Vice President, with his nightstick equipped with an electro shocker that could bring down a mastodon, raised and buzzing. Reno's eyes were fixed on the filthy figure clad in blood-stained white standing in front of them as he told Zack calmly: "Just watch." Zack gritted his teeth, his sword hand shaking. How could Rufus Shinra point a gun at a little girl's head?
"Honestly, I kind of like this girl. She seems to have a lot of potential. We are always looking for new SOLDIER candidates. I'd rather not shoot her because that would be a waste." While Zack could imagine worse things than becoming a SOLDIER, even if forced to, the situation turned even worse after Rufus had watched their reactions for a few seconds. "And there's also the matter of my subordinate over there, whose blood is all over my suit." He shook his head. "I'm not angry about my suit, but this man's blood has no business being anywhere outside his body, and I have reason to believe it is due to your schemes that he ended up the way he did." But Rufus Shinra was still not done. "Let me think about that again. She's kind of cute and actually not that powerful. I might find myself in need of a new mistress. Blood can only be paid for by blood, after all." He waited another few seconds and continued. "Or would you rather be rational and talk it over? I might even return the Leviathan materia if, and only if, you appease me enough." He tilted his head provocatively. "Which will it be?"