"Shinra Headquarters..."

Harry stood in front of the towering building she had just visited before. SOLDIER Headquarters, apparently, was not a separate building but rather a part of Shinra Headquarters. The doors were the same polished glass, but the sky was dark and starless and something about the entire Midgar seemed ominous.

A hilarious notion, but her hands felt clammy and her body seemed to rebel.

Shaking her head, Harry dismissed the feeling quickly, and tugged down the cowl of the nondescript black cloak she had transfigured from an old ragged cloth trashed in the lower districts earlier. She would at least be able to pull off the look of a witch breaking in, even if she couldn't pull off the one looking like Zack's older sister.

Breaking into the Headquarters was simple enough. Alohomora fried the electrical locks and Harry went in without a problem. She almost missed the camera in the entrance but she used her magic to put over a false image over them.

There was to be no records of her sneaking in.

...Well, except for the soon to be reunion which then evidence would be Zack's own memories but Harry knew her brother could keep secrets for her.

She slipped inside the elevator. Unfortunately, the elevator did not come up with visitor-friendly labels for the upper floors, nor were those upper level floors accessible without card keys. Sighing slightly, Harry pressed the elevator button to as high as she could go, which was unfortunately only the 6th floor.

No matter. Harry's plan- it wan't nonexistent, really- had been paying a visit to the surveillance rooms to begin with. After all, even if her magic could override the elevator so that all floors became accessible, Harry did not fancy visiting floor after floor to find Zack. Dragging time just meant a larger room for error.

Because unfortunately because the Point Me spell was as good as useless now to find the proper layouts of the building now that she was in it. The spell was similar to a compass in the way that for the spell, the spoken destination was like north to a muggle compass. Being so near the destination made the spell useless, like how the compass was useless in the North Pole.

The elevator gave a soft ping and opened. The hallways were dark and empty, but Harry could hear distant footsteps, approaching her direction.

Harry ran across the halls and stood in a different hallway that had the elevator in clear view, waiting. Soon, she saw the light of a flashlight as the guard in a uniform rounded up the corner.

"You-" the man did not get to pull out his weapon or even finish his sentence as she slid next to him and slammed him on his temple.

The man passed out.

She looked down at the fallen guard. The poor man, most likely a security guard and definitely not SOLDIER like Zack since, weren't they reputated to be unbeatable by the poor, normal folks of Gaea? If a SOLDIER got knocked out this easily, Harry would be severely disappointed for Zack if this was what he had left for. Shinra and their fake propagandas... But no, he was just a normal man.

After all, his limbs were not muscled heavily nor did she see his eyes glow blue- though she could have easily missed that due to the glow of the flashlight.

Harry wondered exactly how much time would pass before the whole place went full on alert. The building was big enough, and Shinra was rich enough, to hire multiple night guards. She searched his body and found an identity card and card keys, and hoped those were the ones that could take her all the way up to the SOLDIER floors.

But well...

To her, morals were finicky little things, but she was an older sister. Harry had to be a model for Zack, even if he would never know about half the things she had done. Breaking in didn't make her feel guilty, it was for a good cause after all; but mind-rape was a different matter. It would make things so much easier to just steal the guard's memories of SOLDIER Floors and Apparate, she wasn't that desperate.

At least, not yet.

Maybe forgoing the far easier, simpler, faster solution would come and bite her back. But Harry really, really didn't want to face her little brother after all this time with tainted hands and a heavy heart.

Careful steps and guesswork led Harry to the surveillance rooms.

Harry stood next to the metal doorway, back pressed firmly to the wall as she listened in alertly. It was all dark, but faint blue light leaked from the creaks in the door. 'They must be videotapes,' she thought, as she leaned in.

"Jude, could you check to see what's taking Chris so long?"

"Why me," grumbled the youthful voice.

Harry opened the entrance while muffling the door so that if the door creaked, no sound would be heard.

"'Cause you're the youngest," snickered another. "Now get beatin' and come at me with the idiot trailing behind ya or don't come back at all."

She counted three men inside, all wearing the same uniform and gathered around in front of the screens showing all corners of Shinra, and she decided that they must be the rest of the security.

One was sitting on a table far to the right with one hand on a mug, flicking several pages worth of papers in a bored motion. Another's eyes were glued to the screen and the youngest one was looking at the other two back and forth.

The youngest made few weak protests but in the end acquiesced. As he was about to turn to her direction, she backed away from the entrance.

The security guard was completely out of sight of the other two guards when Harry moved. He was not expecting her, and the dark hallways hid Harry so that he entirely missed her as well. She pulled the young guard- more a boy than a man- close and put a finger to her lips.

"Shhhh," she said with an impish grin. The guard froze, shocked. She took him out with a gentle touch to his forehead, stunning him immobile, and left him as an unconscious slump on the floor.

"Hey, what was that noise? Jude?"

Harry pulled of her cowl and stood in front of the door, with a clear, apologetic expression.

The two guards, older than the previous one gaped at her.

She strode in as if it was the most natural thing in the world, saying apologetically, "I'm sorry sirs, but I think I'm lost. I'd appreciate if you could lead me to the SOLDIER Floors?"

One man instinctively glanced over behind him, and Harry saw that the papers his eyes had landed on were the layouts to the building. Harry grinned.

"What in the seven blazin' hells-"

Harry smiled sweetly and knocked one out with force and stunned the other with a wiggle of her hands.

"Sorry, but you'll have a slight headache later," she murmured. Harry dragged the young guard she'd left at the door as well, and used a quick Obliviate to take only the memories of herself out of the three guards' minds. For all appearances, they had just fallen asleep- nobody would believe it, but without evidence, they would never be able to do anything about it.

She was the only one standing, and she stood, satisfied. And truth be told, the three fallen security guards had never had a chance. Harry really shouldn't feel this smug about this of all things, really.

But who said some self-appreciation wasn't healthy?

Harry pulled the cowl back on with one hand and grabbed the layout she had eyed earlier while talking with the other, and tried to find the SOLDIER Floors. The layouts were labeled from Floor B10 to Floor 70, and scanning the pages, SOLDIER Floor was apparently on Floor 49. The other detail in the map were markings of several black squares in several locations on each Floors with numbers written next to them.

Harry looked up the screens, and although she was an idiot with computers, even she could make connections between the numbers on each right hand upper corner of the small screens and the numbers written in the layouts.

The layout was a map for the locations of each cameras.

Harry placed the layout back on the table and scanned the cameras diagonally, realizing that that those rows were cameras on the same Floor. She searched for Floor 49, and then, it was obvious that the floor was for SOLDIERs. It had all the training equipment, things she had seen in fitness centers and more, and several offices, and some rooms that had been marked in the layout did not appear in the screens.

The area that didn't appear, Harry guessed, could be the SOLDIER dorms. It would be a heavy breach of privacy if the guards could see from cameras here, though the black boxes and numbers indicated that there were cameras situated on those places as well.

Maybe there was a higher level security-guard in Shinra, or maybe they just recorded without watching to use the recordings only when some problems came up.

Either way, it was unfortunate that their were no direct cameras to the SOLDIER dorms but then again, she would have filed a complaint to the company later if it was true but it would have made everything a lot more simpler.

No matter. Harry committed Floor 49, to be exact, the area shown by camera that was closest to the area with no surveillance, to memory.

Harry placed the files back to their places. She counted the time. It had been about thirty-five minutes since she'd entered the building. She didn't know exactly when the shifts ended for the three men that she'd just stunned, and if they were discovered too soon, it would be... detrimental.

Harry wasn't really worried, though. After all, what were the consequences? It wasn't as if they had any evidence of a break in, and even if they did, they didn't know what she looked like. And who would suspect her? Especially since most people, without evidence, fell into the trap of the male pronoun involuntarily leading to a more closed perception.

Everything would be fine.

Harry envisioned Floor 49 from the eyes of the camera, took a deep breath, and Apparated.

It was just her luck then, that she landed on top of a man in her Apparation.

"What the fuck-"

She shouted out her own expletive in her head. He hadn't been there just a moment ago when she was watching the cameras. Why the hell was this man now squirming beneath her?!

She took a moment and thanked her own foresight to steal a conveniently placed basic black cloak to cover her body and face. Actually, she should thank Ingals really, since her actions making her thinking about proper outfits had made her care enough to cover own self for this venture. But still, such a blatant breaking in was... No, she really didn't want to think about that.

The red haired man twisted, gun in one hand and the other grasping her ankle. He was much, much faster than the poor guard she'd stunned earlier. Harry fired a stunner, but it slipped off of him.

She narrowed her eyes. He had definitely used something on himself. These were the times she realized how much education she lacked in this world. She did not know what exactly he did, because she didn't know what types of materia existed, if there were anyone who could use magic without materia like wandless magic. She wanted to learn but such knowledge did not exist in Gongaga and her cravings to learn was definitely lesser than the desire to stay with her very own family.

Nonetheless, the redhead must have done that something as soon as she fell on top of him- it wasn't as if anyone with their few cents would have realized she was a very capable magic user- and take fast precautions against spells. Whatever. If she couldn't effect his body directly...

Fire burst from her hands and the sudden light in his face made the red-hair flinch. She used the opportunity to kick him away, using magic to reinforce her strength.

He slammed into the wall. He coughed into his hands, and she winced as she took in the coppery scent of blood.

She made a move to reach for him that she aborted halfway when she came to her senses and realized that the man, with red on his lips was grinning.

"There's fucking nowhere you can run to, yo," he said nastily.

What...

Then he slammed down on the emergency bells behind him.

Damn it.

The room was filled with a high pitched shriek as it rang, and the building seemed to light up in flashing red.

Seeing Zack had just gotten postponed to be a lot longer.

Harry breathed heavily as she landed next to the church. She had been in the SOLDIER Floors when she had been outed. Which meant that as soon as the alarms blared, Harry knew that SOLDIERs would rush in.

Really, she'd escaped with just the skin of her teeth. Even if she could Apparate, she had to do it when no-one was in grabbing distance from her and with SOLDIER reflexes and numbers against her, that would have spelled disaster.

Back to the church, it had been the first place that crossed her mind. Well, all the better. Harry needed to think up of excuses in case Aerith realized she'd slipped off during the night. She remembered the way back to Aerith's house, it would be fine.

Except surprisingly, light was pouring out of the church.

Harry winced. Aerith must have woken up, and when she realized she was gone, must have gone to the church. Putting on an apologetic expression on her face, she pulled off her cloak and walked in.

To be met face to face with Aerith glaring at an Asian man on the phone- okay, Wutainian,with a tilak on the middle of his forehead and in a blue suit identical to that of that redhead who had outed her back in the Shinra Headquarters.

The Wutanian and Harry's eyes met.

...

Belatedly, Aerith turned around as well, and a smile blossomed on her worried face as her eyes landed on the previously missing, black-haired girl.

"Harry? Where were you, I was so worried!" exclaimed Aerith.

The man's suit was identical to the redhead.

She froze. Alarm bells rang in her head. It... it was impossible, how had they gotten here so fast? And why was Aerith with them? Harry wouldn't be able to forgive herself if her actions harmed Aerith in any way.

The Wutanian took in her expression, and his gaze shifted to the cloak in her hand.

Harry's eyes belatedly trailed to the cloak. Why was she so utterly stupid-

"...I think I have the culprit," said the man over the phone in a even, low voice, without taking his eyes off from her.

Harry could have left, if not for Aerith. Why had she thought this would be a good idea again? Why did she think this would be fun?

Aerith's eyes turned wide. "What are you talking about Tseng?" Suddenly, Harry wavered in her first assessment. Familiar, Aerith was familiar with this man- Tseng. And Harry was quite certain that he hadn't followed her here, which only left...

"Wait, don't you dare-" said Aerith threateningly.

The phone fell out of the man's hands as the man grabbed Aerith to his side, one hand caging her in and the other covering her mouth. Aerith stood defenselessly against him, forced against her will and unable to speak, but clearly angry, no, furious.

She protested heavily, but her words turned out to be incomprehensible, muffled.

It was a threatening position but to Harry, Tseng did not seem dangerous to Aerith.

You … this isn't a criticism, Harry! But you do … sort of … I mean... don't you think you've got a bit of a saving-people thing?

That didn't mean that Harry could just leave her.

"Harry, is it?" asked Tseng out loud. His voice was cold and unruffled.

'Points for the realistic acting,' thought Harry to herself.

Harry admitted her loss quickly and easily. They knew her face and name, she'd visited Shinra officially just hours ago and, and soon, if the people working in Shinra's intelligence had even half a brain, everything else would be revealed as well. Even she couldn't erase the memories of a person over a phone.

And Harry most definitely had no plans to live the rest of her life in hiding and as an enemy of Shinra- especially when her brother worked there.

Another oops. One that couldn't be forgiven if anything happened to him. If she didn't play this nicely, it would be her own brother on the line.

"...How did get here so quickly?"

Because all facts considered, it was impossible for them to have reached her so fast.

But an inkling of what happened crossed her mind in what was the most ridiculous bundle of coincidences. Tseng had never tracked her down in the first place.

"Quick on the uptake, aren't you?" said the man smoothly. He tilted his head slightly, and Harry realized another was subtly approaching her from the back. Tseng was amusing her to buy them time, Harry knew he was, but she'd rather pretend not to know and hear his answer.

People usually spoke truth when they could feel victory just steps away, and when they needed to buy time. One could ramble, but they usually rambled based on truth.

This was both.

"You're plan was executed perfectly, but for one fatal flaw."

Harry's mind whirled. Tseng himself had been surprised. Which meant he realized only because of her reaction to him and the cloak she'd carried. It was luck on their part. Luck because they'd never expected her yet had their eyes on her the entire time.

"Aerith Gainsborough is constantly under the Turk's surveillance," Harry whispered, finally connecting the lines and understanding the full picture.

Harry had resigned herself to the fact that she was going to be knocked unconscious but Aerith had not given in to that fact yet. Her struggles grew even more frantic. Dragging a hand across her face and sighing overdramatically, Harry said pointedly to the one behind her.

"Get on with it now would you?"

From the spaces between her fingers she saw Aerith still, and Tseng's eyes widen slightly.

Hands reached from behind and covered her mouth and nose with cloth in sharp, quick movements. Chloroform, thought Harry, and spared a final glance for her female friend. Shooting her for what she hoped was an apologetic, I'll-be-fine-don't-you-worry grin, she took in a deep breath and fell into the depths of her unconsciousness.

Tseng wouldn't kill her, at least not without digging for information first to make sure such a break in never happened again. She also hoped that her cooperation in the capture would win her some points.

...She could hope.

Harry was going to have a chance to explain herself. And Harry would do anything, anything, so that Zack or her parents or Aerith; that her precious people were safe an unharmed. They wouldn't be hurt because of her, she would never allow that to happen.

Harry was glad for once Hermione was no longer with her. The witch would have flayed her alive.

Harry woke up to harsh lights and with the feeling of cold steel of the chair pressing onto her back. Her hands were bound by rough rope that went around her wrists and arms.

A man sat across from her, a table between them.

"Awake now?"

AN: Quote "saving people thing" is directly taken from Harry Potter. Nothing you recognize is mine.

Next up would be Turks, Turks, and more Turks, and their solution to the problem that is Harry. Not sure if Rufus or Zack would be able to make an appearance, I'll see how the next chapter goes.

I hope you enjoyed. Please review and tell me what you thought of this chapter.^^

Thank you.