Leak

Weiss was a bit confused all of a sudden as he stared down at the screen of his PHS oddly. They hadn't been told who was supposed to be their commanding officer for the Wutai Assault, as it was formally being called, but he'd assumed it would be someone like Sephiroth since it wasn't him. Now, he was being called to a meeting in Lazard's new office—what used to be Heidegger's office—and it was the day before they were due to leave for Wutai. Apparently, by the note, there were to be others there as well, but he wouldn't know who until he got there. And speaking of which, he had about fifteen minutes to do that.

A sudden meeting was usually not good. That meant something had changed significantly.

He called for Inder to join him to attend the meeting, so the other young man did and they headed to the appropriate office. It was spacious compared to the SOLDIER Director's, but other than the desk and the view from the window, nearly everything had changed since Lazard had been promoted to Department Head. The man's jacket was now the same color green as Heidegger had worn, but his pants were the same tan and he still had the same glasses, blue eyes, and blond hair cut to the nape of his neck. Come to think of it, hadn't he read somewhere that Lazard was Rufus' half-brother?

Already present in the room were Argento and her mentee, Riven, and Sephiroth and Kal (and Akira, because Akira was always wherever Kal was). He didn't know if anyone else was supposed to be there, but while the others had turned to look at him and his mentee, the door opened again just behind him. Stepping out of the way, he found both Azul and Angeal entering the room with their mentees (and the two experimental dogs). That made pretty much all the possible commanders.

He turned to look at Lazard to ask, "Is that everyone, then, Director?"

The man waved his hand absently and said, "Just Lazard is fine, other than in formal settings. I'd do away with that, too, if I could. And we're still waiting on Veld and one of his—oddly-chosen Turks for the Wutai Assault."

"...Do you mean their engineer, Cloud?" Weiss asked in bemusement. "Because that's actually not odd—he's going there to retrieve a specific child, then coming back here with her so the Turks can take charge of her, nothing more. It's not his place to fight there."

Lazard blinked, but nodded in recognition, saying, "I'd been told he had a purpose there which wasn't the same as the combat unit's, but otherwise, I had no idea what it was. That's not why I needed him here, though."

"I see..." Weiss blinked, but was cut off as the door opened and Veld and Cloud walked in, a small, odd-looking pup on the boy's heels. Weiss figured it was one of the lab escapees like the ones Angeal and Zack had, and watching the pup and Angeal's white, winged dog greet one another affirmed his thought.

"Is this it now?" Veld asked of Lazard.

"Yes, we've got everyone now," Lazard agreed. "So, to the reason for this meeting. Our monitoring teams in Wutai have found some unusual activity lately, especially around places like Tamblin and the Capital. At first, it looked like it was only a shift in guard positions, which happens every six months or so, and that even could have been feasible, even out of schedule. It wasn't until yesterday that they saw something indicating this wasn't that kind of normal shift, timing aside. It's what they observed that we need to go over."

He then pushed a file over towards Cloud, gaze keen. "Cloud, as the Turks' engineer, I want you to have a look at this—it's mainly a file of machines seen there recently. I want your opinions of them."

Weiss was surprised to see that Cloud was wary as he took the folder, but the blond did and flipped it open—only for his brow to furrow in confusion. "That's odd..." the boy murmured, flipping through more of the photos in the file.

"What's your first thought, Cloud?" Veld asked of the boy. He obviously looked wary of the images as well.

"It's an airship of unknown design, but they apparently don't know it is. That almost implies they found it, they didn't make it, but it had a use to them, I suppose. By the wiring, they're using it to power the rest of the machines—and Wutai being pretty much devoid of technology would make that a feasible 'use' for it, too. The ship itself doesn't seem to have weapons, or they can't access them if it does. By its design, it's more advanced than our own most advanced Air and Space tech, so probably even we'd have trouble with it. The rest of the machines look like hacks of our own—I'm guessing those are the result of our plant, though."

At the last, Cloud looked up at Veld, who nodded and said, "Those are things we gave specifically to lure in the people we needed. It means the reports we've gotten back have indeed been successful. If they made them correctly, these are going to give us some trouble—most are rapid-fire machines with decent targeting ability."

"Like the machine gun turrets we can activate in defense of our building, you mean?" Lazard asked in mild surprise.

"Those are one, yes," Veld agreed.

"If that's what the basic machines are, we can manage now that we know. Cloud, do you think you'd be able to hijack the airship?" Lazard asked.

Shaking his head, the blond admitted, "I might be able to fly it if it was fully functional, but this is otherwise a bit beyond my skills. You'd need the best Air and Space has to offer if you actually wanted to get that off the ground and get it anywhere."

"Air and Space..." Lazard muttered, then gave another nod. "I'll see if we can get someone added to the roster for that, then. Veld, that means I might need you to divert a Turk to guard the one getting that out of the way for us."

"I should be able to do that," Veld agreed. "Possibly Ansha, since she's also an engineer, but one who deals more in vehicles. She may be able to help whoever you get from Air and Space."

"Fair enough," Lazard agreed. "I'll be in touch later, once I have specifics." At the older man's nod, the blond man went on, "Now, the major issue with those machines is that they were somehow rolled out right before our planned, secret trip to Wutai, and they are most definitely in our way. If we have a leak not planned by the Turks, we have a problem, especially just now, and we have no way of knowing if that means they'll be in the caves, too."

"That's not what our plant was doing it for, so this is a legitimate leak from somewhere in this building," Veld answered.

"That leaves the people who deal with SOLDIER and the Infantry," Sephiroth commented. "As we know the Turks have sealed lips, and very, very little for 'staff', it is far more likely someone like a secretary for us or a dispatcher for the Infantry heard something and repeated it in the wrong place, either accidentally or deliberately."

"Yes, and that's a problem," Angeal sighed. "Those roles are all heavily vetted for their loyalty and ability to keep their mouths shut, and work ethic comes second to those. It's unlikely they would have said anything, and the ones who might have said something weren't around to hear something worth saying."

"They aren't the only ones who talk..." Zack commented dryly into the silence his Mentor's words left behind. Everyone's eyes turned to him, so he held his hands up in a surrender position and explained, "Hey, are you all forgetting that both SOLDIERs and Troopers go out to bars, get drunk, and run their mouths? It's a lot less likely for a SOLDIER to do that accidentally, but a Third can definitely still get drunk, even if a First can't. Troopers...We have how many of them coming with us? And we know people like Fuhito can get in and out of the city, so they can get into our bars. That would be especially true in the Slums, and I know plenty of guys who go to Wall Market to unwind at their bars, too. But, since we're the only ones who know about the caves right now, I doubt it would be watched if Wutai found out that way."

Everyone just stared at Zack for a long minute before Lazard admitted, "That's also possible, yes." He then sighed. "We would still need to find the one who was so careless and give them disciplinary action for it, but in that case, being fired or eliminated would likely not be necessary."

There was a pause as Lazard stood from his seat and said, "Moving on, we've established that Argento and her unit is intended for interrogation purposes, and she handed me her list of chosen team just before the rest of you arrived. I've had the system sorting what's left since then, taking into account your existing established units already." The man paused and turned his computer screen to face the others in the room, saying, "The result is that each of you will have a SOLDIER or Deepground faction for your heavy-hitting requirements, and a rather large group of Infantry for anything else you need.

"I asked the system to be a bit more specific for your team, Azul. Most of them should be those inclined to your manner of fighting, with a trained team from the Materia Ops in the Infantry—they're your heavy magic support. Your task is going to be keeping Tamblin busy while the rest of the force is moving on the capital. Ideally, you would also take Tamblin, but that's not what the President is expecting from you. Personally, I hope you get it."

"I'm planning to, anyway," Azul replied flatly.

Lazard nodded. "Fair enough. Moving on, with the change in battlefield dynamic, my original plan is changing a bit. Angeal, I'd like you to send some of yours back to Tamblin from behind. If all Azul needs help with is keeping runners from escaping back to Wutai City, that's what you do, but the majority of your forces will move forward to help at the capital. Only if Azul needs backup will your runner team lend a hand. If you see a chance to disable the machines at either site, do so.

"Weiss and Sephiroth, you'll have to focus your attention on Wutai City. Argento's people will be with you, but their primary function won't be battle. Don't rely on her help in active combat. On the other hand, chances are she knows her way around, so use that to develop your plan of attack—just don't approach it until you know what your plan is. The plains around it will make that hard, but we learned in the early part of the war what their general range of view is, so you can use that to your advantage as well."

"What, no 'go do this specific thing, just because I said so' orders?" Azul asked with a derisive snort.

Pausing to push his glasses up his nose, Lazard asked, "What is it you're complaining about, exactly, Azul?"

"I think he means that both the Restrictors and Heidegger gave orders to people because they felt like it, without accounting for anyone's abilities, and expected those orders to be followed to the letter or else, no matter how the battlefield changed," Angeal commented, then faced Azul. "And Azul—and Weiss and Argento, for that matter—we liked Director Lazard because he was more open-minded about how we dealt with things, including realizing battlefields change and so would our tactics."

"A paper-pusher? Really?" Azul glared. "At least the other options knew what a battlefield was like."

"I'm not sure Heidegger ever knew what it was like for everyone else, because he always lived like a king while everyone else starved," Veld answered. "He also never fought directly, even when he was on the battlefield. The result was that his orders almost never matched the needs of the situation and almost always made it worse—I've had to spend the last twenty-some-odd years trying to fix those messes to our best advantage, after the damage had already been done. As for the Restrictors, I'm not sure they actually disregarded anyone's abilities, I think they simply expected obedience and at least tried to send the right people for the job."

"Agreed," Lazard said, dropping his hands to the desktop so he could lean forward on them. "As for my stance, Azul, no I generally don't go to the battlefield directly, but I do take reports from it from all sources very seriously. When SOLDIER is sent with other units on any sort of task, I read all of their reports, too—Turks, Infantry, mercenary, and so on. I've also learned some things about SOLDIERs, like how all of you have heightened senses, so it's generally not a good idea to rush you out when your own stink in an enclosed space could knock all of you out. If you're all cleaned up after, say, training, then you're good to sit back-to-back and side-by-side in an enclosed transport, but not otherwise, just as an example.

"Part of the reason I was allowed this position was my tactical ability and my memory," Lazard went on, straightening again as the others in the room (except Veld) stared at him in surprise. "I've worked to better my grasp of the battlefield and how it may change, which is why I sent people to keep an eye on it as we prepared for the Assault. Because they do change. A lot. What may have worked two days ago may not work now because it's now pouring rain instead of bright and sunny. Those changes often happen too fast for a commander here in Midgar to give the appropriate orders in time for them to be useful.

"As such, in the interests of expedience, I leave those sudden changes in orders to the field commanders, get their reports back, and make new plans for them to start with in response. I don't expect absolutes in method, only that the end goal is met unless something comes up preventing it. By extension, I assume the field commanders—which means the five of you and your mentees—know your jobs and know how to command. So, unless you aren't capable of command, this shouldn't be an issue for any of you. If that happens to be an issue, please let me know so I can remove you from such a demanding post."

By the time he finished, everyone but Veld was gaping at him in surprise, but Azul found his voice and said, "No, I'm fine. I just wanted to know why you were being so lenient in your plans and orders." The large man paused, then added, "And I appreciate that leniency now that I think on it—because as they say, 'no plan survives first contact with the enemy.' It's also the reason so many other plans, even of the Restrictors' plans, went awry."

Lazard nodded. "I'll leave you to it, then. You'll find more detailed data on the terrain and enemy positions in your PHS inboxes within the hour—you're welcome to use that to help in your plans, and to ask me for more details if you feel you need them. If that's all, I'll wish you luck for your pending trip. Veld, I'll be in touch with my plan for that ship."

"Agreed," Veld answered, then turned to leave. Cloud paused to return the folder before following him out, and the others followed him.

"I didn't expect that," Weiss commented. "Cloud, why did you look so wary of that ship?"

Cloud sighed faintly and said, "We need to go somewhere more private."

The others traded looks, but Azul said, "Well, I'm going to start my planning now, so fill me in on anything important later, Weiss."

"Of course," Weiss agreed, gaze going to the others.

"Zack and I need to stay close to Cloud—the pups aren't ready to be separated from their mother for more than a couple hours yet, and Cloud already had Tyra away from Halo for over an hour," Angeal said a bit tiredly.

"I, on the other hand, feel much as Azul does, and that I would like to begin making some preliminary plans," Sephiroth replied with a shrug.

"For my purposes, your topic of discussion doesn't really matter, so I'm doing the same," Argento added.

"Sure thing," Weiss nodded. "Updates later if needed. We're good."

At the elevators, Veld, Cloud, Angeal, Zack, Weiss, and Inder (and the dogs) got in one while the others (and Akira) got on the other. Sephiroth and Kal were already discussing some things the man knew about Wutai, and both Brent and Riven were listening intently. In direct contrast, no one on Weiss' elevator spoke, not even Zack. Which was odd, because Zack almost never shut up. The white haired boy's brow quirked as he saw how mulish Cloud was, though.

It didn't take long before they were getting off on the Turks' floor, where the two Turks headed for their main office. Once there, Cloud sat at his desk, and Weiss sat across from him in a spare chair he pulled over and turned around so he could straddle it and rest his arms on the back. Veld went to his office, and Angeal, Zack, and Inder all grabbed chairs and sat at Cloud's desk. "So, what's with the airship?" Weiss asked.

"Did you ever see the one the WRO used when we had to fight you?" Cloud asked in reply.

Weiss pondered that for a minute, then said, "Only vaguely, but nothing specific. I never saw it directly."

"Yeah," the blond answered, still looking incredibly mulish. "It was one Cid found and dug out of the ground. Even if he named it the Shera and was able to fly the bloody thing, it wasn't anything like our technology, and we can't re-create it. The one from the photo looks a lot like the Shera, but not exactly the same—I may not even have recognized it as one if I'd never seen the Shera. Because this one's different, the only thing I can think of is that the Wutains always knew where it was, probably somewhere in their lands, but had no idea what it was, and never told any outsiders about it. Not even ones they trusted."

"And...how powerful is the Shera?" Weiss asked cautiously.

"In theory, it could be—it had what looked like dozens of weapons ports. In practice, we never found weapons which would work in those ports, or not even close to properly if they did, so it's largely just a glorified transport ship. In this case, though, what worries me is Scarlet's inclusion in things, because knowing her, if President Shinra is still in power, she could probably turn it into a certified battleship," Cloud sighed faintly.

"I could turn what into a battleship?" Scarlet's voice asked curiously from nearby. All the men looked up at her in mild surprise—and a few gave impressed whistles when they saw the dress she was wearing. It was the one Leana had made for her, and she looked fantastic in it, especially when it almost looked like she was posing with one hand on her hip while she eyed them.

Angeal gave her the short-hand of the account, modifying it only enough to say the ship had been in an underground cavern, then finished with, "And President Shinra hardly needs more weapons of mass destruction, but as Cloud said—you'd be highly likely to be able to do exactly that to this unknown airship."

"I see," she commented thoughtfully. "You're probably right, and I won't under the current regime here. I make enough high-powered weapons as it is." She then paused and looked at Cloud to add, "And thanks for properly introducing me to Reeve—my new idea is improving by leaps and bounds with his help. We'll be able to start production of a few prototypes in a few weeks at this rate."

"I'm glad it worked out for you," Cloud answered with a small smile and nod. "Though you really should be thanking Sly for the introduction, because he's the reason Reeve saw your designs."

"Not if you hadn't caught him hijacking them," she replied in amusement. "Why did he go after them, anyway?"

"They have metal threads running through them—shiny, silver threads," the blond told her, gaze amused. "Raccoons like to hijack shiny things."

Scarlet snorted, but Weiss asked, "So...who's Sly? I mean, a raccoon?" In response, Cloud pointed off to the side and when Weiss looked, he saw a bundle of brown fur sleeping on top of Reno's computer screen. "...Reno has a pet?"

"So does Tifa," Zack grinned. "Hers is called Hex, though. That one adores Materia, and can even cast with it, without slots. I think they came as a pair?" At the last, Zack checked with Cloud.

"They were on a sign that got shot down, and landed on Tifa and Reno," Cloud shrugged. "Since they're babies and saw that as the two having just saved them, Hex and Sly got attached. At least Hex isn't quite as sticky-fingered as Sly, but she's definitely collected some things for Tifa, too. I'm just waiting for the day they start getting into sealed rooms."

Probably for the first time in his life, Weiss felt the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose. "How do you put up with them?"

"I catch Sly and stay on Hex's good side," the other boy replied in amusement, which caused laughs all around the group.

"So, if Air and Space brings the airship back, won't they tell the President it has weapon ports?" Inder suddenly asked.

The others looked up at him in surprise, then both Weiss and Cloud sighed and agreed together, "Probably." Then, they stared at one another as Zack cracked up laughing and Angeal gave them an amused look.

"That doesn't mean I have to actually make weapons fit in those ports, I just have to look like I am," Scarlet put in dryly. "I could even pull a fast one and make him think it's not going well even though I've already got fitted and fully-functional prototypes."

"And you're willing to do that?" Cloud asked her in surprise, making Weiss wonder why he was so surprised. The woman had never been stupid—if anything, she'd been frighteningly intelligent and shrewd.

"Cloud, do you really think I have a reason to like the President?" she replied in a distinctly dry tone.

Suddenly, there was an outburst of angry snarling and alarmed shrieks from the middle of the room, making everyone turn to stare in surprise—only to see something furry and rich auburn in color chasing Sly in a circle in the middle of the room. Since no one had noticed Sly leave, that meant the other creature had...come looking for him? Reno's alarmed shout as he tried to grab Sly caused everyone's eyes to widen—and a moment later, Sly landed on his back and jumped away as the other creature (was it a Trickplay?) bowled him over. Reno landed flat on his face on the floor and the two creatures tore around the room.

Above the din, Veld yelled, "Get those two under control or they're dead!"

"What? No!" Reno gasp-shouted in horror, looking up at him like he'd just said he was going to kill his puppy. Which, if Sly was Reno's pet, was sort of what it was.

"...Of course..." Cloud sighed, and Weiss blinked—then watched in amazement as the raccoon reached the boy—and the blond literally snatched him out of the air mid-jump, pulling him tightly to his body to shield him from the other creature. The creature jumped on Cloud's shoulders and head and effectively perched there as it tried to get to the raccoon, which allowed Weiss to affirm its identity as a Trickplay.

Then, the white haired boy had to blink and gape in shock as Derin, of all Turks, dove right over him, Cloud's desk, and Cloud, hit the Trickplay, and gathered it close as he tucked and rolled—and didn't let it go as he came to a stop, sitting on the floor. The Trickplay fought to get away for a minute—then stilled, but stayed tense. "Cloud, Sly wouldn't happen to have something of mine on him, would he?" Derin called over to the blond, and Weiss blinked at the strain in his tone.

"Not that I can tell," Cloud answered. "Reno, did Sly deliver something to you when he got back?"

"Ehm...Maybe? Gimme a minute ta check my desk, yo," Reno answered, quickly heading to it to search the drawers. At one, he stopped and frowned, then took something out and made his way to Derin, his hand closed around the object. Weiss realized that meant it was something private, and private to a Turk was probably something he didn't want to know. When he got to the older Turk, Reno asked, "This it?" and showed it to Derin.

"Yes. Let Rogue sniff it," Derin answered. Reno held his hand low enough to let the squirrel-fox-ish monster sniff it, and the Trickplay relaxed.

"Both of you, my office, now!" Veld almost snarled, and everyone winced.

"Damn..." Reno sighed tiredly.

Derin reached up to take the item, then shoved it into his pocket and rose, still holding the Trickplay. "Well, no sense in putting it off..."

Reno turned to Cloud as Derin headed right for the office, and Cloud sat up to hand Sly over to the red haired Turk, who said, "Thanks for shieldin' him, Cloud." Cloud just nodded, and Reno followed Derin to the office, closing the door behind him.

Zack looked down at the three dogs, who had watched the scene calmly with interest, and commented, "I'm suddenly really thankful these three are as mellow as marshmallows..."

"So am I," Angeal agreed tiredly with a sigh. "Are we done here, then? I'd really rather head home before something else strange happens."

"Sure, we're done," Cloud agreed, rising. He gave Scarlet a quick hug and a small thanks, which she returned, and the whole group made their way out of the Turks' office.

"...You guys never have dull days anymore, do you?" Weiss asked in bemusement as they waited for the elevator.

"Turks never had dull days to start with," Cloud replied flatly. "They're just...worse now." That produced chuckles from the others.

It was only several minutes later, when he and Inder were going over some of his preliminary plans, that he realized what Cloud had meant when he'd commented on just waiting for Sly to start getting into locked rooms. And he obviously just had. He began to wonder what they were getting in to.