Chapter 15

"Damnit! That's enough now! Where's Aeris?"

Cloud whirled around in his chair, staring at the blank faces scattered across the disheveled room. Zack was the only one, besides Cloud, showing any emotion, pacing back and forth with his arms crossed.

"I don't know," he said, stopping short. "But I'm going to go look for her."

"I'm coming," Cloud said, standing up so ubrubtly that he knocked the chair to the floor.

"Wait, Cloud!" Tifa stopped him. "You can't abandon all of us here. We need you!"

Cloud sighed and his shoulders slouched. He looked around the room.

"I'll go with Zack," Sephiroth suddenly volunteered from the back, unwilling to admit he was worried about Tayeko.

Cloud nodded skeptically, not pleased with the idea of Sephiroth going after Aeris. "Fine. If you don't find anything in half an hour, call my PHS."

Zack nodded and jogged out, Sephiroth following behind in a swift, graceful stride. Cloud shuddered and turned back to face the monitor. Tifa reached her hand to his shoulder.

"Don't worry," she said.

Darkness.

Tayeko opened her eyes, blinking them sorely as a sharp pain greeted the side of her head. She brought her hand to her temple, felt a trickle of blood ooze from a wound beyond her hairline, and winced.

She looked around her surroundings. It was dark, and she was laying on a broken floor amongst rubble that had to have once been chairs, tables, computers, and other office essentials. She saw a few broken walls around her in the distance, but it was obvious the roof had collasped at one point as it was lying around her on the ground.

Tayeko shook her head slowly as the memories flooded back. She'd been in the Shin-Ra building with AVALANCHE... reading files! She'd freaked out after reading her file, and ran out here. Aeris followed, and then the Turks came...

She saw a red headed one trying to restrain Aeris, but her lack of aim with her own weapon had been useless. Instead she must have gotten herself knocked out.

Now Aeris was gone, as were the Turks, not a trace. And it was all her fault! She couldn't even shoot the man to get him down! She should never been so selfish to run out here in the first place, putting Aeris in danger.

Determined, Tayeko slowly rose to her feet, although the head injury was making her dizzy and throwing off her balance. She ignored the pain and tried her best to continue back the way she came to reach the others.

Aeris opened her eyes.

She was so sleepy. She smacked her lips quietly and yawned, stretching her arms out until they could stretch no more. She'd felt like she'd slept for hours, but she was still tired, and incredibly weak. In fact, she was so weak that she couldn't bring herself to climb out of her bed...

Bed?

Aeris looked around at her surroundings, a wave of shock washing over her. She lay in a bed, or a cot rather, that was propped against a cold steel wall. It was outfitted with a simple matress and heavy flannel blankets. She glanced to her left, and saw something that scared her to death.

A glass window.

However, this window did not lead to an outside world where flowers grew and birds flew. It led to a hallway where lab technitions and uniformed SOLDIERS and Turks passed, holding test tubes and weapons. One Turk was patrolling the hallway, though Aeris could not see his face, as the angle she was laying at only permitted a view of him from the chest down as well as everyone else that passed, unless they were short.

Aeris was tempted to climb out the bed and bang on the glass, begging the Turk to open the door and let her out. But, her body would not listen to such a command.

Instead, she watched as the Turk continued to brood outside her cell. She guessed it was Rude, as it was obviously not a woman and she knew Reno was not quite as tall and would probably be taunting her at the moment.

She lazilly put her hand to her head and wondered how she let herself get into this state. She remembered being dragged off by Reno, her mouth taped. However, things got a bit blurry after that and the next thing she remembered was waking up here.

Still tired, Aeris rolled over and pulled the blankets over her head, hoping to find refuge beneathe them. She inhaled deeply.

Breathe...

Aeris brought her hands to her face and whispered a silent prayer.

Now, to wait for it to come true.

Zack stomped through the rubble, out of breath, searching for any sign of Aeris or Tayeko. Sephiroth followed close behind, not showing any signs of tire. Zack was hoarse from calling Aeris' and Tayeko's names, but they'd had no progress after almost an hour. Sephiroth had disregarded Cloud's instructions to call on the PHS after thirty minutes had passed. In fact, the PHS had nearly ended up sliced by the Masamune when Zack attempted to call.

"AERIS!!!!!" Zack screamed with all his might, climbing a top a pile of rubble that was once part of a ceiling somewhere. "TAYEKO!!"

Sephiroth gritted his teeth unnoticed, angry with himself for allowing Tayeko to run off the way she did, angry at the others for allowing her and Aeris to leave the way they did.

Sephiroth unsheathed the Masamune and drove it into the ground, a common display of anger for him. Zack's neck snapped to the side at the sound of metal meeting the broken linoleum floor, and frowned.

"I swear, I'll say it again," he began, "Some things really never change."

Sephiroth glared at Zack and shook his head.

"We have to find them," he said.

Zack nodded, finding Sephiroth's statement of the obvious incredibly boring. "I'm calling Cloud."

Sephiroth ripped the Masamune out of the ground. "No you won't," he warned. "We're going to find them without his help.

Zack was about to respond when his former General tilted his back towards the sky and shouted at the top of his lungs. "TAYEKO!!!"

Tayeko stopped. She leaned against an overturned chair, her mind swarming and her heart beating fast. She was dizzy and could hardly walk, and was thankful she hadn't run into any monsters. However, she stopped because she heard her name.

Somewhere in the distance, someone screamed "Tayeko." Who was that? It was a man's voice. Sephiroth? No... maybe he was looking for her?

She opened her mouth to respond, to give whoever was calling her a clue that she was out here, near. She hoped this was not a dream...

"I'm...." she started to yell, but couldn't get any further. She was incredibly weak, and slid to the floor, holding on to a leg of the chair. "Help..."

Tayeko would have sworn all hope was gone when through her blurry eyes she saw two figures in the distance. They were both obvious males, tall with broad shoulders. They both had long hair, but the taller one had incredibly long hair that reflected the moonlight...

Sephiroth?

Something got in Tayeko's eye, and she blinked, opening it seeing red. Blood. It must have run down from her forehead. She leaned her head against chair and opened her mouth to call to Sephiroth, sure that it was him after seeing his glowing light green eyes in the distance. The darker haired man's eyes also glowed from mako enhancement, a deep royal blue. Must be Zack, looking for Aeris.

"Tayeko?!?"

Tayeko smiled at the sound of her name, watching as Sephiroth broke out into a run and came towards her. Zack too began running.

Tayeko's heart rate increased when Sephiroth fell to his knees next to her, the glow of his eyes reflecting against the paleness of her face. He brought his gloved hand up to her face, wiping the blood from her forehead and away from her eye.

"Curses," she heard him muttered under his breath. "Are you alright? What happened?"

Tayeko blinked, her bright violet eyes shining into Sephiroth's. Zack at that moment had caught up and stood next to Tayeko.

"Where's Aeris?"

Tayeko sighed, shaking her head unsteadily. "Aeris is gone..."

Zack's eyes widened and flashed. "What do you mean, gone?"

"We were talking," Tayeko continued, taking a moment to swallow. "The Turks came.. they took her.. and someone hit me..."

Sephiroth pushed Tayeko's high bangs aside and checked the wound on her head. "This is potentially serious," he said. "We've got to get you some help. Who did this to you?"

Tayeko thought for a long moment. "Some bald guy..?"

"Rude," Sephiroth answered. "Not surprising. He has incredible strength when it comes to brute force."

Tayeko attempted to stand, but Sephiroth caught her from what was an inevitable fall. She smiled up at him, then fainted in his arms.

"I..we've got to get her back," he said uncomfortably.

"What about Aeris?" Zack asked.

Sephiroth looked around. "If Shin-Ra took her, they've probably brought her to Junon. We should go there."

Zack frowned and took a final glance around the terrain for Aeris. Sephiroth had gathered Tayeko in his arms, and together, the two men began their hike back to warn the others.

Cait Sith laughed heartily at his file, one of the few pleasant ones that had beed read. Cloud had still refused to read his, and let Red and Striker go over theirs. Striker had gotten so angry that he flipped over a desk and then went outside with one of Cid's cigarette's, a habit that he'd never actually acquired. Vincent as well declined reading his file for the time being.

Zack suddenly stomped in the room, out of breath and anxious. Sephiroth strided in behind him, an unconscious and bleeding Tayeko in his arms.

"Oh my God!" Tifa exclaimed, her hands flying to her mouth. "What happened to her?"

Sephiroth knelt down and carefully lay Tayeko on the cold floor, his jaw set in obvious anger.

"She said the Turks came and took Aeris," Zack answered, seeing as Sephiroth wasn't about to say anything. "She said Rude hit her and she was knocked out. Then she woke up and tried to walk back, but we found her first. She told us all of this, and then she passed out."

Tifa rushed to Tayeko's side and tore a bit of cloth off a bandage already wrapped around her wrist beneath her glove. She dabbed it on the side of Tayeko's head to clean up blood, then held up her arms and closed her eyes.

"Cure..."

A green materia orb on her glove glowed for a moment, and a green mist appeared and absorbed itself into Tayeko. The wound on her head magically healed itself instantly, and the black haired Cetra opened her eyes.

"Tifa? Aeris!"

Tifa put her hand on Tayeko's forehead to calm her. "Relax, Tayeko. Take it easy."

"Where's Aeris?" Tayeko asked frantically. "Did they...?"

Tayeko shook her head as the memory came back, the corners of her eyes threatening to flood with tears.

Cloud had lept up from his seat and was standing over where Tayeko, Tifa, and Sephiroth were on the floor. "Now what?" He asked frantically. "Where's Aeris? How do we find her?"

Sephiroth stopped himself from running his fingers down Tayeko's face and stood, parallel to Cloud.

"They either took her to the new Shin-Ra building here or the one in Junon."

"So what then? Stake out the building here first?" Striker asked.

Cloud folded his arms and looked around. "Pack up. We're going right now."

"Cloud!" Tifa exclaimed. "Be reasonable! Its late, and we're all tired. We're in no condition to carry out a fight-and-rescue mission."

Cloud gave Tifa a disgusted look. "What's wrong with you, Tifa? Aeris' life is in danger! We have to do something, now!"

"Cloud, I know you're worried about Aeris, we all are. But you'll do her no good if you storm in there unprepared and get yourself and all of us killed!"

"She's right, Cloud," Red agreed.

Cloud threw his hands up. "Fine. Have it your way. Let's go back to Reeve's building. We'll see if Aeris is still around tommorrow morning when you people are 'ready'."

Cloud stormed out of the room on his way back to Reeve's building, a wave of anger left in his place. Zack, who'd also was favoring go after Aeris immediately, took off behind Cloud as well.

Tifa started at the cracked doorway Cloud had past through for a long time, the rest of the group afraid to speak. Finally, tears splashed down Tifa's cheeks and she too ran out.

Sephiroth helped Tayeko to stand and faced the shell shocked group.

"Let's go back," he commanded.

Yuffie frowned.

It was nearly ten and she had not seen a sign of Reno. The hallways of the Shin-Ra building were basically empty, and she found herself wandering on the lab floor of the place, looking for Reno.

Yuffie shook her head. Reno was good to her in every aspect except for the fact that he was unreliable. He was supposed to meet her hours ago, but now here she was, wandering around hours after most everyone'd already left.

Yuffie found the lab floor intriguing, even though it reeked of Hojo. There weren't many experiments going on, mainly on animals and some research on humans that volunteered for basic experiments. However, after passing a restricted area with her Turk I.D., Yuffie stumbled across something that shocked her half to death.

"Aeris?!?!"

Aeris tilted her head upward to stare at the girl on the otherside of the glass. She thought she saw her lips move, but of course she couldn't hear what she was saying. Aeris recognized her to be Yuffie, the short black hair and wide, curious gray eyes obvious to that. Her outfit was another story.

Yuffie was wearing a Turk uniform.

Aeris walked over to the window and tapped the glass, knowing that trying to speak to Yuffie would be useless. Yuffie cocked her head to the side and stared into Aeris's bright green eyes.

"Aeris? Are you alright? What are you doing in there?"

Aeris blinked, unsure of how to respond to something she couldn't hear.

"I can't hear you," she called back.

Yuffie scratched her head. Aeris had spoke, but she heard nothing. Must be the glass. Shrugging, she decided the only way she's find out what was going on was to opened the glass and let Aeris out.

Aeris smiled when she saw Yuffie fumbling with a set of keys, trying each one to open the glass. When she finally got it open, she nearly lept out of her "cell" and wrapped her arms around Yuffie.

"Thank you, Yuffie!" she exclaimed. "I'm so happy to see you!"

"So am I," Yuffie responded, stuttering slightly. "Why are you here?"

Aeris brought her hands to her forehead. "I don't know... the others and I were at the old Shin-Ra building looking up some files, and Tayeko ran off pretty upset after she'd read hers. I went after her to comfort her. The Turks came, and Rude knocked Tayeko out, and Reno tied me up and I ended up here."

"Reno?" Yuffie gasped. "The Turks?"

"Yes.." Aeris answered. "Wait... why are you wearing a Turk uniform? And what happened to you, we searched Wutai high and low for you!"

Yuffie looked down. "I guess I'll kill two birds with one stone," she answered. "I'm a Turk."

"What?" Aeris answered. "How...?" "I was dating Reno, and he got me a position," Yuffie answered. "They didn't tell me about this mission, and I can see why. You'd better get out of here."

"Wait!" Aeris said. "Won't you get in trouble?"

"Don't worry about me," Yuffie answered. "They've obviously want you for something, so you'd better save yourself while you've got the chance."

Impressed with Yuffie's newfound selflessness, Aeris smiled and took her friends hand. "Come with me."

"I can't," Yuffie said, shaking her head, still thinking about Reno. "Please, just go down the hallway till you reach the elevator, then make a left and you'll see a fire escape. Climb down all the floors and get yourself out of here.

"Please, Yuffie," Aeris pleaded.

"I can't!" Yuffie nearly shouted, giving Aeris a little push. "Tell the others I said hi. Now get going."

Aeris nodded and continued down the hall, frequently turning back to look at Yuffie. She finally reached the end of the hall and made a left towards the fire escape.

Yuffie shook her head and looked at the empty glass cell. She knew if someone found out what happened, she'd be dead...

"Kisaragi."

Yuffie turned at the sound of Rude's voice, seeing him standing a few feet behind her, tall and brooding, arms at his sides.

"You let the Cetra go."

Yuffie wasn't sure how to react. She broke out into a run past Rude, startling and confusing him. He took off after her, but she knocked over tables, trays, and containers of bio-hazardous materials to obstruct his path. It was obvious to Rude that when Yuffie passed through the elevator doors, he'd lost her.

Cursing, he pulled out his PHS to relay to Elena, the quickest way to get to the boss.

Aeris was near the end of the fire escape, the night wind blowing her skirt in all directions. The ladder ended above ground, so with a bit of bravery, she lept down the rest of the way to the ground.

Falling on her rear, Aeris brought herself to her feet and looked around for guards. Seeing none, she walked around the side of the New Shin-Ra Building.

Aeris made it around to the front and sighed in relief to see that the only guard on duty outside the main door was fast asleep. Walking quietly, she made it past the front entrance and into the oncoming street.

To be so late, the streets were still bustling with activity. People passing her gave her strange looks, perhaps because of her cheerful appearence in such a drab and dreadful place. The former flower girl shook her head sadly as she looked at crumbling buildings whose foundations had been disrupted by meteor, "CLOSED" and "FOR SALE" signs hanging in front of them.

Aeris did not know her way around the upper plate, especially this sector, whichever one it was. She knew she'd have to get back to Reeve's building soon, and get word out that she was okay, before the others did something foolish.

Aeris reached into her jacket pocket and frowned when she realized the Turks had robbed her of her PHS. She wished she had some spare change to use a pay phone, but figured that even if she had that, they'd probably take it from her as well.

Aeris walked past homes, businesses, and people, hoping that she was going the right direction and that she'd be home soon.

She'd been walking for some time now, apparently daydreaming because she found herself running into a young woman who zoomed past. Aeris fell to the ground, and was nearly trampled by three men who seemed in pursuit of the girl.

"Oh, dear!" Aeris exclaimed, watching the three men back the girl up against a wall near an empty doughnut shop. The men were dressed in the usual thieve attire, most likely trying to mug the poor woman. Aeris watched in horror as one man stepped foward and slapped the girl across the face.

Aeris was thankful that there was still materia in her wristbands, even though her staff had been taken from her by Reno. She closed her eyes and concentrated, and knocked her enemies to the floor with a powerful Bolt3 spell.

The young woman, long wavy blond hair wrapping around her face and stunned blue-green eyes wide, watched as her attackers fell to the floor, their clothes and flesh burning. As they tried to stand, Aeris caught them with a Sleep spell to buy herself time.

"Come on!" she called to the girl, eager to get away before the men stood. She knew she wouldn't be able to take them out alone. "They'll wake up any moment now!"

Hesitating just a moment, the girl pushed her hair out of her face and jumped over the still bodies of the men, running over to where Aeris stood. The flower girl smiled, her green eyes glittering.

"Thank you," the girl breathed.

"Its alright," Aeris said with a nervous laugh, pulling the girl to force her to follow her to safety. After a short walk, they'd made it to an old park where a dried fountain stood in the middle.

"I couldn't let them hurt you," Aeris continued when they reached the safe haven, sitting down on a bench near the fountain. "By the way, what's you name?"

"Isabelle," the young woman not older than herself answered.

"I'm Aeris. Nice to meet you, Isabelle."

Isabelle smiled. "I guess I wouldn't be alive if I hadn't met you, Aeris," she said.

Aeris frowned. "Don't be so pessimistic."

Isabelle shrugged, holding her bag close to her and pushing her hair out of her face. "How can I pay you back, Aeris?"

Aeris waved her off. "Come on, that's not necessary."

"Of course it is," Isabelle argued. "You saved my life, I must repay you."

Aeris was about to protest again when an idea came to mind. "Actually... do you happen to know where Reeve Developmental Industries is?"

Isabelle cocked an eyebrow curiously. "Yeah... that's on the other side of the Sector. Why do you want to know where that is?"

"My friends are there," Aeris answered. "I'm sure they're probably worried about me and looking. I have to get back."

"You're anti-shin-ra?" Isabelle asked.

Aeris was a bit thrown off by the question. "Yes... I guess you can say that."

"Are you... are you the famous Aeris... the Cetra that died at Sephiroth's hand?" Aeris blinked. How did the girl know all this?

"Um... yeah," she answered. "How did you...?"

Isabelle shook her head and smiled. "I work for Reeve. Come on, I'll take you there."

Aeris cocked an eyebrow but whispered a silent prayer of thanks to the Planet and followed the girl as she led her back to Reeve's headquaters.

Elena swung Rufus' door open in one swift moment, panting out of breath.

"Mr. President!" she yelled.

Rufus dropped a handful of papers he was holding and glanced up at the short haired blond. "What do you want?"

"The Cetra's escaped," Elena breathed. "Rude says Yuffie let her out..."

Rufus blinked and stared at Elena for a moment, feeling the symptoms of shock coming on. Instead, he shook his head to clear it, then lept to his feet and slammed his palms on the surface of his desk.

"What!?"

Elena nodded. "She's gone. Yuffie let her out and Rude almost caught her, but Yuffie's a slick one."

Rufus stepped out from behind his desk and kicked his trash can, sending its contents spilling across the floor. "Where is she?"

"She's probably with Reno," Elena answered. "He was supposed to take her home tonight."

Rufus scowled and grabbed his phone, dialing the number to Reno's PHS. "He'll just have to take care of her himself, right now," he said.

Yuffie shifted uncomfortably in the plush passenger seat of Reno's car, wondering if he had any idea of what she'd done. Though she felt like she should trust Reno, something made her feel vunerable.

Reno looked at her through the corner of his eye and grinned, causing Yuffie to blush in reaction. She wondered if he even knew Aeris was missing.

Reno's PHS rang at that moment, causing Yuffie to jump nervously. He gave her a stange look and answered the phone.

"Reno here."

"Reno," Rufus' voice came. "Is the Kisaragi brat with you?"

Reno resisted the urge to look at Yuffie. "Yeah..."

"She let Aeris go a few hours ago. Did you leave her alone?"

"Reno switched ears to keep Yuffie from hearing the conversation, and spoke in a low voice. "I had her run a few errands, that's all."

"Well, she wandered around and found the Cetra, and let her go out of sympathy," Rufus nearly shouted. "Now its your responsibility to take action."

"Action?" Reno repeated.

"Kill her," Rufus stated bluntly. "Or *you* will pay."

The line was dead.

Reno tossed the PHS on the dashboard, startling Yuffie.

"Who was that?" she asked.

"Nobody important," he lied, slouching back in his seat. Yuffie shrugged and looked out the window.

Reno looked at Yuffie and shook his head. He pulled his bottle out of his breast pocket and unscrewed the cap.

"Reno!" Yuffie suddenly exclaimed. "You can't drink and drive!"

"Don't worry about it," Reno answered, taking a swig. He avoided looking at Yuffie contemplating whether or not he'd be able to do his job this time.

As Reno pulled into the parking lot below the condominium building he lived in, he thought of the cold, steel gun in his other breast pocket and the electrifying metal rod in his pants pocket. Would he be able to use it on her?

Reno J. Nevader never botched a job, he reminded himself as he and Yuffie silently rode the elevator to his floor. He ran his hand down his face as the doors reopened.

Yuffie walked ahead of Reno to his room. He sighed, deciding he'd make it as painless as possible. He pulled the cold pistol from his pocket as well his keys, handing them to Yuffie.

"You open it," he offered, standing behind her.

Yuffie smiled, and accepted the keys, fiddleing with the lock to open the door as Reno took a step back and raised his weapon...

And fired.