A/N:
I am so sorry about this chapter! Oh my gosh... This is not one of my better written ones at all, but I needed it to move quickly because I want this fanfic to end. So it's choppy... If I messed up on anything PLEASE TELL ME. But anyway, I hate the end of it. It's ick! But yeah, anyway... Besides the point. And the end is TOTALLY NON-CANON and ENTIRELY made up by me. It made sense in my head, but now that I wrote it down, I don't agree with it... MEH. Alright. /endrant It's really long too, by the way. xD
kero123, I'm feeling much better! Thank you for asking.

"Before we get too far into this, you both owe me an explanation," Sephiroth snapped agitatedly. "If there's one thing that I cannot stand, this is it."

"Please," Tseng rolled his eyes as he spoke, "you should be used to being left out of information. How much was left out whenever you worked for Shin-Ra?"

"This is different," Sephiroth countered. "We're dealing with a scientist… And after what I went through, I want to know what the Hell I'll be getting into."

"He has a point," Vincent interjected before Tseng could defend his position. "Scientists need to be explained otherwise we might as well be walking into some elaborately placed trap."

"We probably are, and the dear director doesn't even know," Yazoo sneered as he brushed his hair from his shoulder. "The scientist probably already knows we're in the area."

"If that were the case, Remnant, I'm fairly certain that there would be a group of people waiting here with open arms for us," Tseng growled. "I'm not about to go rounds with you over this. In my opinion, we need to get out of the open because then he really will find us."

Sephiroth sent one silencing look at Yazoo, who acted as if he hadn't seen it. The ex-general nodded to a nearby house, and the four men went inside. Tseng let them into the inner sanctum of the house, explaining that meals were often eating in this room since no outsiders could look in.

"Why is that important?" Yazoo demanded as the men seated themselves around a table.

"Poverty was a serious thing here in Wutai," Tseng explained in a mechanical voice, which Vincent knew the man only used whenever he was well beyond the point of agitation. "Many murders were committed because of food since it was a rather rare commodity… It's since subsided, but many of the older houses still have these rooms in them."

"Drop it, Yazoo," Sephiroth ordered when the man opened his mouth to make another snide comment. "You need to let go of the hatred towards the Turk. It's not going to get you anywhere; we're on the same side with him now whether you like it or not." He eyed the younger man's face with slight distaste. "Now, Tseng, please tell me how Genesis and this scientist all tie together."

"It's a type of business relationship, really," Tseng continued to use his robotic voice as he turned his attention to Sephiroth. "I think there's some kind of deal between Genesis and Smith, who is the scientist's whose lab we may have just found. Smith must know something about Genesis's need for mako injections to keep him 'stable,' and has based a deal around that. From what Vincent told me in the cockpit, I can assume that Genesis has been helping Smith create clones…
"If that's the case, then we are indeed walking into an elaborate trap, but I'm not sure how intelligent the clones are or if they have any intelligence to speak of. I digress; Genesis and Smith also have another business partner: Otto Corneo."

"Corneo?" Sephiroth repeated thoughtfully. "I'm assuming a relation of the Don's… Is this the one that was caught with that arms deal with the Emperor back during the war?"

"One the same," Tseng confirmed. "Evidently, he and Smith have an arrangement as well. Genesis seems to be the enforcer for Smith. Also, keep in mind that Otto has stolen Cetra artifacts from various locations the world over. This includes tablets and weapons… The weapons aren't as old as the tablets, but they do seem to be pretty significant all the same." He pulled a small notepad out from one of his jacket's inner pockets and flipped through it quickly. "I think that Otto has been looking for something the Cetra found, and I have a feeling it has something to do with the experiments that Smith has been doing recently. As I mentioned, he was mimicking Hojo's experiments… And I'm sure you know what that means."

Sephiroth vocally groaned at this and cupped his face in his hands. "Wonderful…" He grumped sarcastically. "What's he attempting to do by doing that?"

Tseng was too busy looking over his notes, and Vincent decided that it was best that he answer in his stead. After all, he light bulb had just gone off in his head. "I don't think Tseng has a theory on that, but I'm willing to bet that this has something to do with a power trip… With Shin-Ra in a weakened state, it would be very easy to land a killing blow and set Wutai up as a majour power that was akin to what Shin-Ra was. Think about it," Vincent offered up. "With Genesis there, whatever would be set up in place of Shin-Ra would avoid the same mistakes that Shin-Ra made; thereby causing this new ground to be an even greater threat than anything Shin-Ra could hope to be now."

"What of this WRO that Reeve has set up?" Sephiroth inquired as he pulled his head from his hands and leaned back a little bit. "Has he not been tipped off or am I missing another piece?"

"I was asked not to say anything to Reeve," Vincent replied with a sideways glance at Tseng, who was studiously ignoring the other two men talking as he was reading over his notes. "I think that Reeve would have been able to piece it together that Tseng had somehow given me all that information."

"That makes sense," Sephiroth said slowly. "But something isn't adding up here…"

"From what Tseng told me," Vincent sighed, "he's missing a piece: the one that connects Smith and Otto without Genesis."

"Their agenda then," Sephiroth surmised. "But what happens if this is just a job for hire?"

"It isn't," Tseng quipped as he handed Sephiroth his notebook. "While Vincent's theory is a sound one, I think it's an entirely different one entirely… Genesis plays too big a role in this. I hate to say this, but this flips back to his jealousy…"

Sephiroth's eyes snapped to Tseng, and they narrowed as he considered what the man had to say. "Elaborate, now."

Tseng gestured to Yazoo. "In theory, you have three clones. This one and the other two that tortured Elena and me… Whether they were created by Hojo or were simply different manifestations is an entirely different matter. Genesis likely thinks that this is just another attempt for you to prove that you are still leagues ahead of him regardless of how you view yourself.
"Smith and Otto probably fit the bill with what Vincent had to offer, but I don't think Genesis will be satisfied with just having a strangle hold on the people. I think he wants to be viewed in the same light that you were whenever Shin-Ra was considered an almighty power and propaganda ran rampant. I think that those tablets have some sort of power that has yet to be tapped into by anyone but the Cetra."

"Have you seen the tablets or the weapons that you mentioned earlier?"

"I haven't seen the tablets, but I was able to locate some of the weapons and convince their owners to let me look at them. I copied down some of the inscriptions and translated them as best as I could, but those notes are back in Vincent's plane…"

"Were the tablets in different collectors as well?"

"Yes, they were. I would have usually insisted using my position within Shin-Ra as leverage to gain access to that sort of information, but since I'm 'dead,' that doesn't really work all that well."

"What if the weapons were an illusion to the Weapons that were summoned along with Meteor?" Sephiroth proposed. "That would mean that the tablets are likely an illusion to something else as well… Perhaps something even worse than what I was planning on doing back then."

"That's a possibility," Tseng admitted. "I have no way of really knowing without finding some additional material on the weapons or the tablets. I have literally exhausted every source and library that I could find with even so much as a reference to either of them."

"Hm…" Sephiroth mumbled as he looked over Tseng's rough notes. "What if Vincent got in touch with the collectors?"

"I don't see that ending well," Yazoo chimed in. "He was the one that Genesis is looking for as he mentioned. It would probably just send red flags off all over the place; not saying that our prior actions haven't encouraged some, but I think that it would put the nail in the coffin. We'd be in more peril than necessary."

"For once, Yazoo and I agree on something," Tseng admitted. "It's a long shot at best anyway…"

"Well, nothing ventured; nothing gained," Sephiroth smirked lightly at the cliché. "Anyway, why don't we try to find that laboratory? That might have more answers."

"It'll raise more questions," Vincent frowned.

"Of course it will," Genesis's voice chirped from the door way. "But there's a more pressing one to be contended with. How on the Planet did you manage to get all the way into the mainland without tripping so much as one sensor?"

Tseng looked bored as he directed his attention to Genesis. Sephiroth's frown reappeared on his face as he regarded his old friend with clear distaste. Yazoo and Vincent caught each other's gaze before turning to the ex-first class as well.

"Oh, my, my," Genesis tutted. "It appears that you knew that I was here this entire time, and didn't even care that you just told me all that you know."

"It doesn't matter," Yazoo informed him maliciously. "It's not as if you're the real one anyway!" Velvet Nightmare was raised and fired with such speed that Vincent had barely noted the young remnant's movements.

Genesis hit the ground with loud thud. Tseng sent the smallest of smiles at Yazoo as if he approved of the young man's outburst. Sephiroth stood and went over to the man and gazed down into the bullet hole. "Black blood," he told Tseng. "What does that mean?"

"It means that Yazoo didn't shoot the actual Genesis," Tseng assured the man. "No matter, let's see if he was marked to keep tabs on the number of clones created."

Tseng and Vincent rose; this was Turk work after all. Sephiroth moved aside to allow the two men clearance. Yazoo replaced the bullet in Velvet Nightmare as the two ex-Turks worked. "Pay dirt," Tseng mumbled as he pointed to the man's ankle.

The other three men looked to where the man was pointing. A black five stood off against the pale skin. Tseng leaned back on his haunches. "So there's at least five…"

"There's probably more…" Vincent muttered as he too leaned back.

"I vote that we get into that laboratory as soon as we can," Yazoo offered up. "We might be able to learn how many there are and perhaps what they're up to."

"Agreed… Let's get started," Tseng nodded as he stood up.

The four men left the room without a glance back at the body. Tseng led them back to the main square for another glance at the sign. While whatever he was looking for was lost on the other three, he had found what he was looking for and led them in a northward direction from their current location.

"The sign said not to go north since there was suddenly an uprising in monsters, and typically that only means on thing in Wutai," he told the other men as they crossed the northern border of the village and hit dirt path once more. "Their usual lands are disturbed, which more often than not means military testing or encampments."

"This is something similar then?" Sephiroth inquired.

"Well, supposing what Vincent said is true," Tseng suggested, "they'll need space, and they'll need an army. Shin-Ra might not be an issue right now, but the WRO has the resources that Shin-Ra had in regards to man power. They would have to train."

"What you're proposing is that there might be a small army of clones waiting for us somewhere along this road?" Yazoo sounded appalled.

"This has already happened once," Sephiroth told the Remnant. "That was back during the war between Shin-Ra and Wutai…"

"Yes, but where Hollander drew the line, I don't think that Smith will… Hollander lost interest in what Genesis was suggesting; Smith doesn't have that sort of capacity. He's like Hojo in that sense. When he sets his mind on a goal, he will do whatever he can to see it come to fruition," Tseng informed them glumly.

"Great," Sephiroth mumbled. "Another insane scientist and two almost equally insane accomplices… Why are our lives never simple?"

Tseng snorted a laugh while Vincent just shook his head with a small smile flitting over his lips. Yazoo just looked at the three of them with guarded curiosity.

The small group of men walked on in silence until the sun had gone down. They stopped at the crest of a hill where Tseng took out a pair of binoculars with night vision and scanned the up-coming road and hills beyond it. He frowned considerably whenever he landed on the crest of one particular hill.

"The good news is the road is relatively clear of any 'human' threats, but it seems the local populace of creatures dominates this part of the highway…" Tseng told them as he lowered the binoculars.

"What sort of creatures are we looking at?" Sephiroth inquired gently.

"I noted a zu*, but aside from that, the others blended in together…"

"Is there something going on up there then?" Vincent offered as he held his hands out for the binoculars, which were soon places there. He raised them to his face.

Vincent could see the zu clearly as it was the only bird flying around. There were other incoherent shapes of animals, which he didn't think was a good thing at all. He shifted his gaze to the other half of the hill and noted three very human shapes watching the ruckus the creatures were causing.

"We need to get off of open ground," Vincent ordered. "And we need to do it now before the three on that hill notice our presence."

Yazoo was off the path and up a tree like a lightning bolt. The other three followed suit and found the man at nearly the top of the tree. "Here, give me the binoculars. I have a pretty clear view of that hill."

Vincent passed them up as he settled into a fork in the tree. Tseng was on the longest rung of them all, and Sephiroth was just a branch or two below Vincent. They waited in silence for Yazoo's report.

"It seems like they're the cause of all the pandemonium," Yazoo quipped in a slightly annoyed tone. "The zu looks like it's being the most reasonable out of all the creatures, but it has to be controlled… I've never heard of a zu acting as contained as this one is."

"Sephiroth, what sort of form did Angeal take after the war?" Tseng glanced up at the man.

Vincent noticed the man was once again frowning when he gazed down at him. "It was a bird-like form, yes," Sephiroth muttered in a moderately annoyed tone. "However, it wasn't as nearly as big as a zu… What are you doing, Tseng?"

Vincent now turned his attention to the ex-director who was fitting a silencer onto the end of one of his pistols. "Yes, what are you doing, little Turk?" Yazoo chirped in.

"Be quiet," Tseng told them all sharply. "There's someone coming, and I doubt that they're friendly."

That oppressive presence that had been smothering Vincent in Junon had returned. He reflexively covered his eyes with his human hand, and as he did so, he felt another presence next to him in tree. He lifted his head to see Sephiroth regarding him quizzically. Vincent pursed his lips and shook his head at the man. He watched Yazoo climb down past Sephiroth to the branch Tseng sat on. He leaned in and muttered something to the man.

"What is it, Vincent?" Sephiroth mumbled in a voice that he knew only Vincent would hear without attracting Yazoo's and Tseng's attentions.

"That presence again…" Vincent returned in the voice Sephiroth had used.

A gloved hand touched his cheek lightly, and Vincent did his best not to leap sky high. He hadn't expected the ex-general to touch when he was in such a concentrated state. Yazoo and Tseng climbed up past the two in a sort of silent rush. "What are you doing?" Vincent shot at Tseng quietly.

"Ambush," Tseng motioned for the two of them to climb up higher. "There's a truck coming. Yazoo noticed it with the binoculars. Yazoo and I are going to take out the tires, and then we're going to slip on board."

Sephiroth and Vincent followed the two higher up into the tree until they were nearly to the top. They waited in silence, and sure enough, lights came over the hill and were closely followed by the roar of an engine. Two silenced bullets flew from two pistols once the truck was almost past the tree. The truck screeched to a stop as Vincent and Sephiroth climbed down from the tree.

The driver and passenger both got out of the truck in unison. They weren't clones of Genesis, which was a relief to all four men. The nagging presence pushing down on Vincent didn't subside however, and it seemed to be getting worse the closer that he and Sephiroth moved to the truck.

"Can you believe our luck?" One man was saying to the other as he flipped on a flashlight. "Who would have thought that we'd almost be home free only to get stuck with two flats now?"

"I told you take it easy along here," The other man returned with a small chortle. "But you didn't want to listen. It's not like we have a deadline… But we don't have two tires to fix both of them. I guess we'll put it on the front."

"But it's a rear wheel drive vehicle," The first objected. "Granted, it will be harder to steer, but we won't have the power we need to get up the next hill without it."

"You aren't the one driving," The second snapped irritably. "We'll get up the damn hill just fine."

The first shook his head dismally but helped the other man get out their spare tire and jack. Sephiroth stuck the second man while Vincent took the first. Both went down silently, and without so much as a struggle. Yazoo was down the tree with Tseng in tow the next second.

"This is too suspicious," Yazoo remarked.

"Obviously," Tseng rolled his eyes. He motioned for the men to pick a side of the door.

Death Penalty was in Vincent's hand, Masamune in Sephiroth's, and Velvet Nightmare in Yazoo's. Tseng held up three fingers and slowly ticked them off. As Tseng lowered his third finger, he and Vincent grabbed the two handles on the back of the truck and flung the doors open wide. Vincent heard Yazoo sharply inhale, and he had to agree with the man's surprise.

Suspended in a tank filled with mako was Genesis Rhapsodos. There were no marks on him to be seen, and only a mask suspended in the tank with him provided him any air. Tseng was the first into the back of the truck, and he motioned for the other three to stay out of the tank.

"If you know it's a trap, why would you do that?" Yazoo demanded.

"Because… This isn't the trap," Tseng replied slowly. "Rather, it wasn't the trap yet. I think they were banking on us using a different strand of actions…"

"There is that presence that needs to be dealt with," Vincent informed Tseng. "I don't think it would be a good idea to release Genesis from his suspension."

"I wasn't planning on it," Tseng smiled at Vincent. "Don't worry; I was getting some of these files…" He scooted a box across the floor and then another. "We definitely need to have a look at these."

Vincent grabbed the first box, and Yazoo took the second. Tseng jumped out of the truck with another box. Sephiroth closed the doors behind him. The ex-general grabbed a flare gun from the back belt of one of the fallen men and sent the flare spiraling skyward before he joined the other three men in the forest.

Tseng led them deeper into the woods as the sound of shouts carried from the distance of the hill. They eventually stopped when the sounds grew distant. Yazoo set his box and then sat on it. "What do we suppose are in these?"

"We'll find out shortly," Tseng told him. A flashlight had materialized in his hand as Vincent placed his box next to Tseng's.

"They were suspending him as Hollander and Hojo used to do so frequently to all three of us," Sephiroth mumbled. "I don't see the point in it… Mako… It's a terrible thing to be surrounded by."

Vincent could have sworn that he saw Tseng's gaze go sympathetic for a split second before he returned to his task of opening on of the boxes. "Science, in a general sense, is a terrible thing to be surrounded by," Tseng countered. "It's amazing what all it can destroy."

Sephiroth grunted in reply as Tseng finally freed the lid off one of the boxes. The ex-director pulled the file off the top. "Well, this isn't good," the man declared.

Vincent hovered over his shoulder. "Aren't those supposed to be in my home?"

"Aren't what?" Sephiroth asked as he came over. He paled. "Yes, I'm fairly certain those are supposed to be in your home."

Vincent took the file from Tseng and opened it. It was indeed one of the files he had taken from Nibelheim to avoid a repeat of the Meteor incident. "This isn't good," he felt his stomach plummet for the second time in two days. "This isn't good at all… It's a good thing we managed to get these before they arrived at the lab."

"We should destroy those," Sephiroth suggested automatically. "I don't fancy what's in those reports, and I definitely don't think that another scientist should have those reports. I might as well be dead now to save them the trouble of twisting my life into something I would rather it not be again."

"This box, we destroy," Tseng agreed. "That's all these files are… And I don't think anyone needs to see them either. One incident and one Hojo is enough for me."

Yazoo opened the box he sat on for Tseng and pushed it over to the man. "I'm not sure what's in there, but I'm sure you'll have a better idea than I ever will," The remnant admitted dismally.

"Hm…" Tseng hummed thoughtfully. "This looks more promising. These are files on the tablets I was talking about earlier. We'll need to look into these more thoroughly whenever it's lighter out." He moved that box aside and slid the other towards him.

The second box was much easier for Tseng to open than the first. "Pay dirt," he declared as he lifted off the first file. "These are Smith's reports."

"Two birds with one stone," Sephiroth let a false smile creep onto his features. "We'll need to go through those with a fine tooth comb as well."

"I have a feeling that these will raise more questions than they will have answers as Yazoo suggested earlier," Tseng told the man. "I don't see this ending well anyway."

"There's someone coming," Vincent said suddenly.

Tseng's flashlight flicked off, and Vincent turned towards the sound. He felt his eyes change in the sudden lack of light, and Chaos's eyes soon became visible in the darkness. He saw Sephiroth take a good full step back away from him as if he weren't sure what to expect from the man. Soon, Vincent knew exactly what he was looking for. There he was, cold and dripping wet with mako: Genesis Rhapsodos. He looked considerably weaker than the tank had made him appear.

"I know you see me," Genesis's weak voice filtered out. "And I need your help…"

"Everyone seems to need my help…" Vincent grumbled in a dark voice that almost wasn't his own. "I'm tired of being asked for help… Two is enough to help right now."

"No, you misunderstand," Genesis shook his head as he finally came into the view for the other three to see him. "This isn't what you think." He collapsed to his knees and looked up at the man with glowing eyes. "I'm not the presence you're feeling…" His eyes widened as they landed on Sephiroth. "Seph, please, listen!"

Vincent turned his head to the ex-general. Fury was plain in Sephiroth's eyes, but Vincent wasn't sure who that fury was directed. Genesis seemed to think it was him. Vincent gave his attention back to Genesis. "You're dealing with me, not Sephiroth. You'll answer my questions first before you go pleading to him or Tseng." He stepped in to dominate Genesis's field of view. "First, why are you with Smith and Corneo?"

"Oh? Is that their names?" Genesis mumbled. "They found me in my own form of suspension where I was waiting for my death… After all, why would someone who lost their only two friends want to spend all of eternity alone?"

"You agreed to help them?"

"Not so," Genesis shook his head as he spoke, mako sprinkling away from him as he did so. "It was forced, more or less. I wasn't a willing participant this time… I was just conveniently placed. They were looking for you."

Vincent's eyes narrowed. "That's a new twist… No matter… Do you know what they've been doing?"

"Bits and pieces, things here and there," Genesis mumbled. "Nothing that really makes any kind of sense to me… I wake up and black out again in a matter of minutes, and it's always in a laboratory. I can't seem to stay out of the places." He chuckled weakly, and Vincent heard Tseng scoff at the man.

"Tell me what you do know."

"Well, there's always the usual mako injection, but then there's another IV that I don't recognize connected to my other arm. It's a reddish substance, and I'm still not sure what it did to me…"

"It wasn't doing anything to you," Tseng told the man with the chilliness only the director of the Turks could pull off. "That was your blood; they were extracting it from you."

That news startled Genesis considerably, and it let all four of the other men know that he had been telling the truth since it was somewhat hard to tell with Genesis sometimes. "They were taking my blood?" His voice was perturbed. "Why would they take my blood?"

"You're not asking questions," Vincent told him sharply. "Did the scenery ever change in the back drop of the lab or were you—''

"And he leads us right to…" A laugh broke out followed by a gunshot. "Silly little boy… What did he think was going to happen?"

Genesis was on the ground writhing in pain. "Rufus," Tseng's voice cut through the darkness.

"Hm…? Oh, you're alive too, Tseng?" Rufus laughed as he came into view. Reno and Rude flanked him.

A man in a lab coat, who Vincent assumed to be Smith, and another lankier man stood behind the two Turks with Elena. She seemed to have them both chained together with a machine gun carefully held between her hands as she stood behind them.

Tseng didn't step out from behind Vincent, and Sephiroth didn't even move to assist his fallen friend. Yazoo was the only one that moved, and that was only to dust his shoulder free of hair.

"This is a rather unexpected turn of events," Rufus admitted as he picked his way over to where Genesis had fallen. He lifted his shotgun to Genesis's face level and smiled in the most unnervingly pleasant manner at Vincent. "I will admit; I was shocked to hear Reno tell me that Genesis was 'back.' I had made a bit of a deal with these two, and they were foolish enough to deal with me… I suppose I owe you all an explanation before you die as well."

"I wouldn't shoot him if I were you," Tseng told his former superior.

"I am not fazed in the least by Sephiroth or Vincent… You and the Remnant are a bit of a complication, however. I wasn't expecting either one of you to join in the escapade, albeit, I didn't think either of you were alive," Rufus smoothed his bang from out of his face. "You see, while the two of them thought that they were building an army for themselves, they handed me a weapon that could destroy both Vincent and Sephiroth. Isn't that delightful, Tseng? People will finally fear Shin-Ra once more."

Tseng fell oddly silent as if he were unnerved. "You're insane…" He muttered. "This entire time I thought that Sephiroth was the one that was completely off the deep end, and here you are defying everything that I had thought up to this point about you… Let me ask you then, Rufus. Was it the tablets, the weapons, or the cloning that gave you the weapon that you claim can destroy Sephiroth and Vincent?"

"It seems you've done your homework, Director," Rufus complimented with the smallest of laughs. "Which do you think it is?"

"The cloning gave you an army, which both of us would be able to defeat… The weapons were the Weapons summoned during the Meteor… That would leave the tablets," Sephiroth answered for Tseng.

"Ah, General, you're hardly lacking in intelligence either. I overheard you saying that same exact thing earlier… Alas, it's fascinating really. Would you like to see the thing I created to destroy you?" Rufus put a cold boot on Genesis's chest and forced the struggling man back down.

"I would prefer to know my death, yes," Sephiroth replied slowly.

Tseng and Yazoo came up to stand on either side of Vincent respectively while Sephiroth took up a place beside Tseng. Rufus motioned to Reno and Rude to bring forward whatever this weapon was. Reno held it out to his boss, who took it and held it up for the four men to see.

"Do you know what this is?" Rufus tried. "No? Ah, well, this is a summon materia. What summon you ask? Neo Bahamut… But that's not all. There are two other forms of Bahamut as well, and both of them combined with the Neo form will bring you both to ruin and wipe out whatever else may stand in my way. Unfortunately for Genesis, one of the other Bahamut summons is more or less rather fond of him. In order for that to be nullified for it to throw its full potential into a battle, Genesis must die."

Weapons were drawn in silence, which didn't seem to surprise or faze Rufus. Tseng shooting him in the gun-arm seemed to do the trick however. Reno was on his old superior faster than Vincent had ever seen the man move before in his life. The scientist and the smuggler were crouching on the ground in a huddle lump while Elena opened fire.

Vincent and Sephiroth jumped in unison while Yazoo rolled behind a tree. Tseng had been tackled to the ground and had no issue dodging the bullets. Vincent landed in the tree above Rude while Sephiroth had landed above Rufus. The ex-general kicked the materia from Rufus's grasp, and Vincent flipped down and landed a blow into Rude's face as he dashed to help Reno with Tseng.

Yazoo had Elena busy to keep fire from straying too far to where his fellows were working. An alarm had sounded somewhere off in the distance, and marching feet started to head their way. Vincent engaged Rude in a little hand-to-hand combat before switching to Death Penalty. Turks never played fair, and it didn't matter if it was against each other. Tseng had mimicked the principle and was practically dancing in circles around Reno, who was barely able to keep up with the man.

A yelp from Elena told Vincent that Yazoo had scored a hit while a discharge of a shotgun told him that Sephiroth was started to frustrate the President. A quick back hand with his gauntlet sent Rude flying back a few feet. The man was unconscious by the time a hailstorm of bullets ripped through the trees.

Vincent barely ducked in time. Sephiroth leapt into the trees, and Yazoo was practically plastered to the ground. Tseng wasn't so lucky. A bullet ripped through his shoulder and thigh, but he got off far easier than Reno. The red-head was a few paces away from Tseng clutching his bleeding stomach.

If this were a normal day, Vincent would have felt a little twang of sympathy for Reno, but today wasn't a normal day. Yazoo was on his way to Tseng as soon as Vincent was. Both men seemed to streamline their way through the bullets while Sephiroth found his way to Genesis, who was barely conscious. Tseng was up over Vincent's shoulder and Genesis over Sephiroth's before they ran faster than they could have ever remembered doing so in their life.

* - I'm not sure of the correct spelling... I think it's zuu, but it could be zhu, or something like that. So I compromised. ^^:::
Another A/N:
I need ideas for another story. I want to write a one shot, but I'm clueless. Anybody wanna send this chick a prompt? lol ((And for the record, keep it FF7 universe... I won't write anything outside that. And stay away from anything that so much as hints at Cloud or Aeris/Aerith...))