Triage was always the hardest. What was the most pressing problem? Who needed help the most? Midgar was in ruins, though there seemed to have been remarkably few citizen casualties. This was a good thing, but it also meant more people to house, to feed, to regulate. Shinra was gone, and it was herself and Rufus that everyone was turning to for answers.

It had occurred to Elfe that she could seize power, that she could challenge Rufus and win, that she could command SOLDIER and have them obey her- at least for a little while. Except their armies had been combined and blended. She commanded as many Shinra troops as Colonel Fair did Avalanche. They were in this together. She could not overthrow Rufus- honestly, the kid was growing on her- but she could help him make better decisions regarding both Midgar and the Planet.

Right. Headcount.

Their combined forces were still assembling. Most of the Turks were already present and accounted for, but the troops were still arriving in fits and starts. She couldn't help hugging Shears when she saw that he was still alive. Both Fair and Azul shook her hand. Knightblade and all the other 1st's were still standing. Their combined forces had sustained casualties, but it looked as if there were more wounded than killed.

"What about Sephiroth?" she asked. Fair opened his mouth, but it was Valentine who responded.

"He's alive," he said, materializing at the end of the line of officers. "Both he and Genesis survived. So did Azul's children. His wife, Aeris, and Tifa are looking after them."

For a brief moment everything went blank and quiet. It took her a minute to realize she was sitting on the ground and the line of officers had turned their backs to her.

"What...?" she began, voice breaking, and she realized she crying. A faded bandana appeared in front of her, held out by the Turk. Mutely, she took it and wiped her eyes. She still didn't trust him, didn't like him, but she gave him points for trying.

"They wanted to give you a minute," he said softly, accepting the handkerchief back. "Shall we reconvene later?"

"Sephiroth and Rhapsodos are alright?"

"Yes."

"Then, no," she said, allowing him to help her up. "I'm fine. We'll continue. iAbout-FACE!/i"

The soldiers turned to face her again.

"Okay, someone get Rufus up here. He needs to be giving as many orders as me, if not more. We need to determine what parts of Midgar are safe to return to, if any. Once we figure that out, we can start billeting the citizens and then ourselves."

"There's no freakin' way," Fair objected. "Even if we could round up a surveying team right now, it'd take them days, if not weeks to determine if anything's safe- and that's assuming anything is."

"I realize that," Elfe replied, trying not to sound as exhausted and irritated as she felt. "Do you have a better suggestion?"

Azul raised one giant hand. "Actually, I do."

The Shinra building and everything within a twelve block radius was igone/i. Jenova had punched a hole through not just the Plate and Slums, but the bedrock beneath as well. Reactor Zero and the antique buildings around it had also been destroyed, a deep lake of dark purple mako bubbling up from the aquifers miles below. The heretofore 'rotting pizza' was now a donut, tilting precariously toward a mako-filled center.

The entire population was in uproar, and corralling them wasn't easy. Harder still was persuading them to calm the fuck down and to pull together. Happily, if it was one thing Rufus Shinra was good at, it was damage control. People were used to listening to Shinras, especially the people of Midgar The funny part was that it had all taken them a moment to recognize him. He'd traded in his ubiquitous white suit for a set of fatigues and a flak jacket. Until he'd taken the helmet off, she had thought he was another one of the grunts. She watched as he climbed on top of one of the larger bits of rubble and commenced not with a stirring speech, but with barking orders. It took some persuading, but those able soon got to work helping bring order to the chaos. Elfe couldn't help thinking that this might all be a bit easier if Sephiroth had still been standing. However, he wasn't, and so directing the troops in their crowd control efforts fell to her.

With the citizens herded to a safe distance, those with experience in building, construction, and similar knowledge volunteered to help the troops test some of the less damaged areas of the city. The most pressing concern- no pun intended- was whether or not the half-collapsed Plate would stay that way. She caught site of a couple of the Shinra executives, expensive suits replaced by work clothes, helping those of a significantly lower tax bracket go over what remained of the city. Someone had already organized a canteen of sorts, and tents and more permanent structures were already being commandeered for children and the elderly. It was a start, but it wouldn't be half enough. Which led to their next problem.

"Think you can get us down there?" Elfe asked, eyeing the slope of debris that led down to the pool of dark mako and the exposed walls of Deepground.

"We can get down, sure," Azul remarked, already climbing. "It's how we're gonna get everyone else down here, provided it's safe, of course."

That was indeed the rub. Elfe followed, hoping that there was still enough left of Deepground to be salvageable, and then taking a moment to appreciate the bizarreness of the thought. The pool of mako had not come so high as street level, not even the slums. The highest floors of Deepground had been exposed, the houses, factories, and other buildings of Old Midgar exposed like an enormous museum diorama. Elfe thought she saw one or two cautious faces peeking out from the windows, but she couldn't be sure. Once at the bottom of the landslide, she could see that there were tunnels and holes, points of access in the rubbish that could be further cleared and eliminate the need for climbing. She made a note to have some of the infantry begin clearing a path should this turn out.

Azul wasn't much on squeezing through tight spaces, but he was handy in clearing a way forward. How they were going to get down to the upper levels of Deepground, she wasn't entirely sure. There certainly weren't any stairs, and she didn't see any access ladders. Azul was surveying the mess, hands on his hips and brow deeply furrowed.

"What do you think?" Elfe asked him.

"Deepground was more than just Reactor Zero," he began after a moment. "It was as big as Midgar itself; different units under different sectors. Mothers under Sector 6, kids under Sector 7, troops under 4, an' so on. What we want is to get down to the Mothers n' kids. Make sure everyone's in one piece."

Elfe nodded. "Any idea what we're up against?"

"You mean troops?" Azul asked, turning to her. "Dunno. Won't know until we get down there. Hopefully your Turk took care a' that. Long as there's no Restrictors we shouldn't have no problems."

"I guess we'll find out."